went up in flames today as the world watched just after seven pm local time the renowned notre dame cathedral was engulfed in giant plumes of smoke as flames ravage the medieval catholic church there is massive damage the spire has collapsed but firefighters say that the towers have been saved this symbol of the city of light tonight it shines no more. this is the day. it's a thousand years of history it represents friends. i feel like we're in school all you got is crying now it looks just to me.

i feel the cathedral has been snatched away from. the. cultural heritage its front that's been hit today france is burning mostly with. our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin the day with what paris and the whole world lost today a massive fire gutted notre dame cathedral this evening the catholic church this medieval monument to french gothic architecture has been a fundamental part of the parisian soul for almost a millennia or tonight it took only an hour for the flames to turn notre dame's wooden frame and its towering spire recognized the world over into a smoldering relic. a heart rending sight as the spire fell striking at a symbol of french culture in the heart of paris the massive blaze spread on words

collapsing the roof and setting the wooden frame of the entire cathedral aflame. the alarm went off shortly before seven in the evening local time no saddam is burning spreading a brown black cloud across the sky persians and tourists looked on and heartbreak kept outside the security perimeter by authorities as ash fell in the vicinity. firefighters had a seemingly impossible task they had to work inside the building to save priceless artworks and outside to contain the blaze as it engulfed the roof now saddam is one of the world's most famous churches holding cultural treasures from nearly a thousand years of french and catholic history. the inferno brought french president emmanuel mccrone to the scene he had been scheduled to give an address to the nation. he

tweeted that the fire awoke the emotion of the entire nation and that the cathedral was a part of all french people it's still unclear what started the blaze there's been no word about arson or foul play the fire may have started in connection with renovation work on the roof scaffolding could be seen around much of the church and just a few days ago statues were removed from the upper spire they at least will survive the flames but that's little consolation as the blaze burns on into the night having already done incalculable damage. well let's go to paris now our correspondent barbara vai's all is standing outside notre dame cathedral good evening to you barbara earlier tonight we and the rest of the world feared the worst total loss of the cathedral when day breaks there may be reason for cautious optimism right. yeah there is some reason for that at least the head of

the firefighters of paris said that they hoped to know that they were able to contain the fire and they could save the structure of the main structure off the kid seat row because the fear was that once the fire wood if eaten from the roof beams down through to the stone vault that keeps up the inner roof off the cathedral then the forces of gravity and pull would sort of press the walls of the kid's seadrill to the side and the whole edifice with huge added fist would just break down in on itself we don't know yet how much damage they can see through us built from sandstone know how much damage this fire the heat has done to the sense stone how much structural problems there might be for the future but so far as we can see in the back even though it's quite dark the

main body of the church is still holding out and two three hours ago the flames you could really see them sort of a licking up against the sky and just burning bright red that has now died down firefighters are still working still from huge cranes are throwing very strong fountains of water up against the church to cool it down they're working mostly on the northern side now the other side from the river way a boat had been throwing water up against it to see drill that has that work has now stopped so this seemed to be some focal points and the two towers seems to have seemed to have been saved so yes the firefighters are still working bought the hoping that they can sort of keep the main body of the cathedral standing and that is an important message for president emmanuel mccall and he visited the site tonight and his was a message of resolve take

a listen. we succeeded in building this cathedral more than eight hundred years ago. the centuries we made it great and we improved it. so i say to you very solemnly they see evening. this cathedral all of us together. and this is without doubt part of french destiny. and it will be a project we undertake for years to come i am committed to it starting tomorrow we will launch a national fundraising campaign. along with. i'm joined now here in the studios with my colleagues. where you glue crossed both of you welcome. let's talk a little bit about what we just heard from the president this determination to

resolve that notre dame must be rebuilt do you share their well. it was in the process of being renovated anywhere and is just going to take much longer now that such such an extensive damage has been done of course it has to be reviewed because it's one of the symbols of france it's something that french people identify with no matter where they stand in terms of prevention so rebuilding such a symbol is of course something that we also go along the lines of paris moto which is to look to our nick maggie taught latin for it floats and it doesn't say that without thinking and it's something we had already. brought forward after the terrorist attacks in two thousand and fifteen and it's another in face of this new adversity i think the city of paris and french citizens will come together to to. to rebuild it's important to the idea that the reasons the french definitely

europeans is definitely a place hope every people in the crypt of the first pair regions are buried so it's at the very heart of paris and for many reasons it is dear to french people's hearts because when one thinks about paris one thinks about the f.o. tower about the do of and of course about not saddam it has also been present in so many books french literature has been singing the praises of kitty jail and not least a veto a go is not. so of course it's a very highly symbolic cultural heritage for friends and to some extent also when i so tonight this fire collapsing i felt that was the end of part of our civilization and i think that's a feeling that was shared by. many french people i've talked to indeed and that's held by many european cities a symbol of the european and us what we saw and we have so much international

reaction sure i mean i think the shock and the sadness that has been expressed in in france has been echoed all around the world of course the vatican expressing shock and sadness as being a catholic cathedral barack obama has come out and spoke dollar trump has tweeted i'm going to michael came out calling this a a symbol of europe not just a french or a parisian side of importance but really a european side of importance so really there's just shock and sadness all around the world and now we're going to see how that shock and sadness get translates into support for rebuilding or whatever is going to come next from this this terrible tragedy because we know that the support the financial support for renovating and maintaining the cathedral was not that strong prior to the blaze and if it does come out as we think tonight that the cause was the. work then.

the money that comes following this fire is probably going to have to make up for the deficiencies that took place before the fire. what is this is a wake up call for the it's i get so wake up call also i think. this is going to look bad on a man or a micro even if it's not his fault that this fire happened but it happened under his presidency and he's popularity is ever decreasing and no of this happens but the lack of friending in french culture heritage doesn't start it was mike ross presidency it has been it has been decreasing for decades and no ma'am across president say my pay the price for it was that symbolic highly symbolic building a city collapsing in the center of paris you let me take this to barbara barbara what do you say i mean could there be a political price to pay for the fire that we sold tonight or is this

maybe a wake up call for for you. there will certainly be a political price particularly for the mayor of paris i need to all go because it is not quite clear at this moment because why it took so awfully long to for a large number of firefighters to arrive at the scene i mean this is really in the middle of paris so could they get through traffic where they are alarmed too late what happened to all this will have to be investigated in the next days as some areas of central paris have been pedestrian eyes there is less traffic which is nice for tourists but might be very difficult under circumstances like today so that's not quite clear but then also for president mike wrong in a way it seems an ominous sign i mean he has been sort of hard to buy bit lucky in a way he had the yellow vests movement emerged before christmas and they've been

sort of pursuing him on and on and he's really had a hard time getting to grips with that and now this highly symbolic catastrophe happens and many people who you don't have to believe in sort of black cats crossing your way to sort of find something that doesn't bode well for the french president he will have to work hard to sort of get the upper hand in this emotional ease turning this into something where he can say let us look to the future and let us do better that is something that he is continuously promising and now he has another issue that he has to deal with and the crowd funding for the cathedral has already started and money is pouring in from as far as the united states and also one of the friendship big and for printer is our no and has pledged one hundred million to rebuild and so the money will come together but it's the last of the

historic have break that is going to leave a lasting. well. this survey was not only to generate sympathy across europe. but as something of a rallying call for the european project could this actually have a positive boost moving towards the european parliamentary elections next month. it's difficult to say brand because you don't know how in event like this that is so emotional and will play out really it is difficult to sort of turn this into something that you can work with is that you can sort of. you know how can you turn the burning down the national symbol often entre dime in the heart of paris. to too far to the future and sort of turning turning the fate of

people in europe so that is very difficult the messaging that will have to come out of this and at the moment everybody is still sort of occupied was digesting what happened here it was sort of a lot of raw emotion here tonight people watching us and relative silence for hours and sort of people really being sort of gripped by this spectacle and so the future we'll see in a few days how. the french media and politicians will sort of deal with that. as we've been saying for the people of france dame is much more they can see it is part of their identity. and they should take a look. parts of what we are an essential part of paris is in peril that was the reaction of many in france is the fire took hold they looked on incredulous as the

flames engulfed notre dame. for the french people not to dom is more than just a cathedral it's the heart of paris a landmark alongside the eiffel tower a magnet for millions of visitors a year notre dame stands on the eels in a city in the middle of the river saying it's france's most famous catholic monument dating right back to the middle ages. cheering the french revolution many of the cathedrals treasures were plundered in one thousand and four it was the venue for napoleon's coronation as the emperor of france. eight hundred thirty one so the publication of the famous novel the hunchback of notre dame by victor hugo it was a huge success and brought the cathedral new attention. now in twenty nineteen the unthinkable has happened the flames consuming not to dumb cathedral taking with them centuries of history. lots of history let's talk about the future of

the sun's going to come up it's going to be the day after this tragedy what is paris going to do with that you know barbara was talking about the mayor is going to have to deal with the political boy back for what the response. by the fire department for example well there will be a lot to answer for indeed this forty five minutes delay between the moment the fire broke and the first intervention of firefighters it's something that one cannot fathom in a capital city like paris where we supposed to have firefighters who are trained for that kind of situations and we know that after the terrorist attacks that took place in paris that they weren't those exercises of in fact creation and firefighters must have been involved in. we know it as the exercises that took place in the time so why did they take so unknown tonight there was this state of emergency after the terror attack in twenty two to you right yeah it would have

been time to prepare for all kinds of disasters but those exercises together by the firefighters the police the emergency services were done in light of the terrorist attacks but they like people who are if martin see services can intervene in some situations why couldn't they intervene to not and that's that's something that the mayor of paris. will have to answer for as soon as tomorrow why did that response was delayed response is still. the the money for the really wasn't there to begin with that may have spirit as all of this if it had been there in the first place i mean we don't know what caused this fire and it's very hard to prove a negative but we do know that that the people behind supporting this cathedral supporting us renovation supporting its upkeep have been struggling for years for decades even to get the necessary funding to keep this thousand year old

cathedral going french state only provides two and a half million dollars a year for its just basic upkeep and maintenance it promised a few years ago to double that of five million dollars over the next decade as part of this twenty year long renovation projects and it's not it's not for pretty things it's for essential infrastructure support of this to keep this massive massive piece of architecture functioning and stable and secure the supporters of the renovation project were estimating this could cost up to one hundred eighty million dollars of before the fire now we have to wait for investigators to tell us what this might cost as as we said french billionaire paino has pledged one hundred million euro sounds like a lot of money but we really don't know what we're dealing with until investigators can get in there and see what the u.s. resident. and of course you know it was just dealing with the fire scene an active fire scene and when you look at. what do you see there do you see a place of worship or do you see an icon for your home country definitely

a symbol of france and icon and not the place of worship of worship i mean a lot of people in france are not believers say they do not belong to any church and yet they are affected tonight and outpolled by what is happening because not i'm is a symbol for friends and it has been so for centuries now it's part of our history it's a vibe to friendship oh this show that it's survived world war one and world war two without being bombed and he was one of the few cathedrals in france which had never suffered from a fire is actually something that used to be very come on and didn't have a time the other night and perrier but. i was as if by miracle i'm not i'm have never suffered any plight such as the one he tended to mind you that's a very good boy barbara what have you been hearing in paris tonight it's about

what six percent of the french attend church regularly this is not a society with a high level of religiosity what have people been saying to you what do they see when they look at notre dame. yes but they still feel heartbroken i mean it is still a very emotional event and that is because it is just so symbolic for france it is just somehow a sign for the long gadgety off the french nation reaching back to middle ages being one of the most stable countries in europe that was sort of invaded by armies but that was never completely overrun or torn apart and that somehow always managed to sort of forum and go for reform and go forward and sort of stay friends throughout a very long time and it is that his story that deep history connection that french

people have to their country to the soil and to the to the main cities of fragments that that makes for the response that is what has been very emotional tonight here people really speaking about being being hunted broken and being very emotional and very touched by the spectacle and and southpaw is something horrible happening in front of their eyes that everybody you looked at and you think you you would want to stop it and people with very quiet here on the bridges around the not saddam cathedral and watching this with this sort of very somber mood and it did touch people it's not so much the rule of religious side but it is the loss of an historical symbol off the rootedness of france in its own past and we can you know hear the sirens in the background there where you are and as we approach the day

break into tuesday morning on the normal you know late monday night early tuesday morning there will be a lot going on even in a city like paris on the streets but tonight it's a completely different picture or isn't. yes police has largely blocked off the sane islands and order so too for emergency vehicles to get through firefighters moving back and forth and to just sort of keep traffic away from here and people have slowly been dispersing they've been out here for hours this group on the bridge here which is still singing religious him so in a very low voices but other people have slowly drifted home they have seen what they had come to see and everybody left sort of in a sad mood so it is affecting the city this really this is going to take a long time to go away and all the talk about rebuilding it's not bloody easy you

can't really bring something back that has been there for a thousand years and that gets almost destroyed within a few hours that seems to be an ominous sign a sign for things not going well for france and so many people will feel this is a sort of negative omen. negative. do you feel that way and it certainly feels like it's the and of a part of this if it is a show we do know if they got to negative oh i will see the future who will tell us you know any case it is a very sad day for friends for french people they've lost one of their one on one piece of their cultural heritage and it's something that will definitely damage across presidency a bit further because it happens under he's men date even though like i say the lack of funding that we were talking about before didn't happen only. under his

mandate is as the result of politic in terms of cultural heritage that has been trying not only to the positive and it. looked a lot worse earlier in the evening when i mean it for a while we were looking at a complete destruction of this cathedral the towers or risk of collapsing they saved them we also can note that nobody died yes very important nobody died this happened after the tours were close knit he draws close for the day there was one seriously injured firefighter was reported we'll hear more about him or her later perhaps and i think it's a very humbling moment for for people everywhere we i think we get lured into the sense of safety in our modern life that we have all this technology and modern political theory available to us to solve all of our issues and for for something so rudimentary as fire it reminds us that we are all very much at the whim of

nature and these things can still happen that's a very good for that's a good point to close on them and of course barbara in paris to all of you thank you very much the day is almost over the conversation continues online if i just on twitter news or you can follow me if you use the hash tag the day we are going to leave you now with images of that fire at notre dame cathedral in paris and remember whatever happens. between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see the next. to.

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