Notre-Dame fire

The fire that engulfed Notre-Dame on April 15, 2019, began in the attic, an immense wooden lattice structure known by builders as the forest. This space supported the cathedral's heavy lead roof with thousands of ancient oak beams, some dating back to the thirteenth century. Because the fire started within this dense, inaccessible tangle of timber, it burned undetected for nearly thirty minutes after the initial alarm was triggered, as staff members initially searched the wrong attic. When flames finally broke through the roof, they created a massive updraft that pushed the fire with intense heat, eventually causing the iconic nineteenth-century spire to collapse into the nave.