Notre Dame (Paris) on fire?

SYB_DC said:
Well, most of the building is stone. I think the only timber is in the roof, but presumably that will go, as would anything inside as it collapses. It's pretty awful.
Click to expand...
Lots of wood inside too, including statues, carved screens and pews, etc. - all of which will be vintage pieces and hard/impossible to replace.
 


Kevj said:
There’s a good chance the masonry will perish also. The heat from the fire will dry the mortar and the roofing timbers will act like a brace to those high walls.
Click to expand...

My understanding of that particular building is that the bracing needed is actually the external flying buttresses and that without them it collapses outwards, but not the converse with the roof. But you're probably right as to the masonry - I hadn't accounted for that, especially on old masonry. I wonder if the fire functionally making its own venting may help, as opposed to it starting on the ground and burning the whole way up.

AlpineExile said:
Lots of wood inside too, including statues, carved screens and pews, etc. - all of which will be vintage pieces and hard/impossible to replace.
Click to expand...

Yeah. All the side chapels are almost entirely wood if I'm remembering right. It's been a couple years since I was there but now I'm really glad I went this last time.
 
Last edited:
SYB_DC said:
My understanding of that particular building is that the bracing needed is actually the external flying buttresses and that without them it collapses outwards, but not the converse with the roof. But you're probably right as to the masonry - I hadn't accounted for that, especially on old masonry. I wonder if the fire functionally making its own venting may help, as opposed to it starting on the ground and burning the whole way up.



Yeah. All the side chapels are almost entirely wood if I'm remembering right. It's been a couple years since I was there but now I'm really glad I went this last time.
Click to expand...

On this occasion, the flying buttresses will provide a load in the inward direction. The timber roof will, to an extent, resist this. Remove the timbers and it’ll collapse inwards.

Such a shame.
 
SYB_DC said:
My understanding of that particular building is that the bracing needed is actually the external flying buttresses and that without them it collapses outwards, but not the converse with the roof. But you're probably right as to the masonry - I hadn't accounted for that, especially on old masonry. I wonder if the fire functionally making its own venting may help, as opposed to it starting on the ground and burning the whole way up.



Yeah. All the side chapels are almost entirely wood if I'm remembering right. It's been a couple years since I was there but now I'm really glad I went this last time.
Click to expand...
The weight of the roof pushes the walls out, so the buttresses are there to push them back in. One has to hope that the upper heights of the walls won't collapse inwards now that the weight of the roof pushing them out has gone.
 

Back
Top