‘Like looking at a bombing’: Notre Dame fire leaves hole in heart of Paris
Parisians feel anger and shame that centuries-old cathedral has been damaged in their lifetime
Hours after the final flames had died down, Notre Dame stood defiant, charred and roofless in the daylight. The huge wooden doors were open as firefighters continued to secure the building, hinting at the dangers and weaknesses that may still lie within.
Inside, beneath a gaping hole above the choir area where the burning spire had crashed down on Monday night, there was rubble, shards of glass, a twist of metal, but the altar and gleaming cross were still standing. “It felt like I was looking at a bombing,” said Philippe Marsset, the vicar general of Notre Dame, one of the first who had been able to enter to survey the damage.