Five years of investigation and expert reports have failed to identify the precise cause of the 2019 fire that ravaged Paris’ landmark Notre Dame Cathedral, even as the probe draws to a close just as the cathedral prepares to reopen early next month.
Notre Dame’s bells rang out Friday for the first time since the fire, ahead of a reopening ceremony on Dec. 7.
However, investigators have yet to establish who, if anyone, is responsible for the fire whose images went around the world.
Photo: AFP
“Every avenue, including the hypothesis of a human role in the origin of this fire [has been] explored since the beginning of the investigation,” Paris’ chief prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in April.
“But the truth is that the closer we have got to the spot the fire started, and the more results of analyses come back, the more weight is lent to the theory of an accident,” she added.
Beccuau at the time said that investigating magistrates had last year called for new expert reports on the cathedral debris, the place where the fire started and the church’s “technical infrastructure.”
Although all had been carried out by April, the experts have been asked to summarize and cross-reference their “extremely technical” findings “to see if it is possible to determine a potential cause for the fire,” she added.
Prosecutors this week said that investigating magistrates have now ordered “a 3D simulation be created of the start of the fire using the images taken at the time. This simulation will allow us to compare different theories” about the blaze.
So far “no charges have been filed” against anyone, the prosecutors confirmed.
A source familiar with the case said the investigation was drawing to a close.
Remy Heitz, chief Paris prosecutor of the initial investigation, said at the time he believed an accidental cause such as an electrical fault or smoldering cigarette butt was most likely.
Since then, no new information has surfaced to suggest deliberate arson.
“Over the past year, every zone has been cleared of debris” — without revealing any new relevant evidence, a source in the judiciary said last year.
The more than 850-year-old cathedral of Notre Dame, whose silhouette is known worldwide, was undergoing restoration work when fire broke out on April 15, 2019.
In a spectacularly destructive blaze relayed around the world in images and live broadcasts, the church lost its spire, roof, clock and part of its stone vault.
Several safety failings were later singled out, including the cathedral’s alarm system which contributed to slowing firefighters’ response, as well the electrical system in one of its elevators.
Neither is believed to have initially set off the fire, but they enabled the flames to spread through the monument.
Investigators have a separate case open into the potentially harmful health effects of the Notre Dame fire, which has also filed no charges so far, prosecutors said.
A health association joined forces with a union and two parents of local schoolchildren for a 2022 criminal complaint that accused authorities of failing to take every precaution to prevent lead pollution.
Supported by its “forest” of wooden beams, Notre Dame’s roof and spire were covered by about 400 tonnes of lead, a toxic heavy metal that went up in smoke with the fire — some of which likely came back down to earth in the neighbourhood.
The weight is “four times the total annual lead emissions into the atmosphere for all of France,” the plaintiffs pointed out.
Possible charges for the lead’s impact on the health of both local residents and workers sent in to decontaminate the Notre Dame site are being investigated by the same judge, a judicial source said.
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
RSS