Fire Rages at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
Dior have revealed they will pour millions of dollars into efforts to restore France’s iconic Notre-Dame cathedral after it was ravaged by fire.
The luxury brand took to Instagram to announce its 200 million euro ($A316 million) donation, as billionaires and private donors also pledged substantial sums.
It comes as firefighters declared the fire had been extinguished on Tuesday morning local time.
A post on Dior’s Instagram read: “The Arnault family and the @LVMH Group, in solidarity with this national tragedy, are committed to assist with the reconstruction of this extraordinary cathedral, symbol of France, its heritage and its unity.
“They will donate a total sum of 200 million euros ($A316 million) to the fund dedicated to the reconstruction of this architectural work, which is a core part of the French History.
“In the meantime, the @LVMH Group puts at the disposal of the State and the relevant authorities all its teams – including creative, architectural and financial specialists - to help with the long work of reconstruction and fundraising, which is already in progress.”
The pledge came after Arnault’s crosstown rival Kering, the fashion group founded by fellow billionaire Francois Pinault, offered 100 million euros ($A158 million) to help “completely rebuild Notre-Dame”.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo also said Tuesday that the city would unlock 50 million euros, and would propose holding an international donors’ conference in the coming weeks to coordinate the pledges to restore the gothic architectural masterpiece.
The blazed claimed the Notre-Dame cathedral’s spire and roof, but spared its bell towers.
What remained was a blackened shell of the monument immortalised in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” a building that had survived almost 900 years of tumultuous French history but was devastated amid renovation works at the start of Catholic Easter week.
Its iconic twin bell towers remained visibly intact. Paris officials said the world famous 18th century organ that boasts 8,000 pipes also appeared to have survived, along with other treasures inside the cathedral, after a plan to safeguard heritage was quickly put into action.
At dawn, the twin 69-meter towers swarmed with building specialists and architects, looking tiny from the ground as they conducted analysis.
“The entire fire is out,” declared Paris firefighters’ spokesman Gabriel Plus, adding that workers were currently “surveying the movement of structures and extinguishing smouldering residues.”
“The task is - now the risk of fire has been put aside - about the building, how the structure will resist,” said Junior Interior Minister Laurent Nunez in front of the cathedral.
QUICK THINKING SAVED CATHEDRAL’S PRECIOUS RELICS
As hundreds of Parisian firefighters fought successfully to save France’s iconic Notre-Dame cathedral from a catastrophic fire, the quick thinking fire department’s chaplain rushed to save irreplaceable relics he feared would be destroyed in the blaze.
While the fire continued to burn more than five hours after it started, authorities were confident that they had salvaged the cathedral’s main towers.
President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rebuilt what has been lost. The fire destroyed the spire and roof of the more than 850 year old landmark, which attracts millions of tourists to Paris annually.
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