I was thrilled to see the flying buttresses still standing. Hopefully they are in good shape.
As long as the walls are structurally sound, replacing the roof should be relatively easy. This time they can take fire mitigation into consideration.
What I'm watching for is whether they put temporary struts across the nave at the buttress locations. The roof normally applies considerable outward thrust on the walls, and with the roof gone there's nothing to balance the inward thrust of the buttresses.
Well...I don't know. I've seen that report in various places.
All that was said was this:
A French judicial police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press the investigation was still ongoing. Investigators still have not been able to go inside the cathedral to search for evidence due to safety concerns, the official said.
That 'report' seems to be a little speculation and a lot of hoping that's the case, but no actual evidence or even educated guesses from someone who knows anything about the cathedral. Of course, we'd all like to believe that no one would do this on purpose, but the reality is that we all know there are people who would, given the chance.
The story said the guy at St. Patrick's claimed he was on his way back to his car, which had run out of gas. So, going through the church was a shortcut? Officers checked and apparently the car had gas. Busted!
A guy walks into a cathedral with full gas cans and lighters, gives a lame and false excuse when confronted, and has a ticket out of the country for the next day. Nothing suspicious there!
It appears that there was an uptick in violence directed toward Christian churches in France in the months prior to the Notre Dame de Paris fire.
I did a quick google search and these articles came up. These were written within the past few weeks before the fire at Notre Dame. Obviously, the renovation work at ND probably makes it more prone to fire hazards, but I think to dismiss arson/vandalism as a possibility at this point is foolish.
Disclaimer: I cannot speak to the impartiality of the article's contents. I do not regularly read either website and am not Catholic myself; however, given that these were both written weeks before the fire at ND, it doesn't seem likely or even possible that these would be used to push some conspiracy theory about that blaze.
I think if it is found to be arson/vandalism, there would be a concern of people acting for revenge. So the real determination might be hidden for quite some time.
Besides I saw someone saying it was a computer glitch that caused the fire. I surly doubt that, but this might have something to do with the report of an alarm prior to the fire.
I also suspect there will be an uptick in the number of copycat events around the world. Like in the US.
Article from yesterday regarding the possibility of construction workers smoking on site or the lifts for the scaffolding having an electrical malfunction.
![[tongue]](/data/assets/smilies/tongue.gif "[tongue] [tongue]")
