Firefighters have finished extinguishing the spire of a cathedral in France’s Rouen, the city hall said.
The fire broke out around noon on Thursday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption where renovation work was underway, local prefecture and fire service officials said. The Gothic cathedral, one of France’s finest, dates back to the 12th century and was painted several times by impressionist painter Claude Monet in the 19th century, achieving worldwide fame.
Footage from French television channel BFM, released shortly after the fire started, shows a thick plume of smoke rising from the cathedral’s central spire and people in the streets looking up in horror.
In later footage shown by the TV channel, the smoke was still visible through a gap in the white covering surrounding the scaffolding around the spire, but was no longer rising in a dark column.
Rouen mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, writing on website X, said all public resources had been mobilised to put out the fire, the origin of which remains unknown.The local prefecture, which exercises public authority in the region, said the cathedral had been evacuated. A security cordon has been put up around the building. People were advised to “stay away to allow rescue workers to work.”
According to the prefecture, there are no reports of casualties yet and the extent of the destruction is still unclear. According to the cathedral’s archbishop, workers who were on site carrying out repairs are safe.
Long history of the cathedral
The cathedral was built and rebuilt over 800 years and has features ranging from early Gothic to late Flamboyan and Renaissance. It is famous for its three towers, each built in a different style.
Lightning caused a fire that destroyed the wooden and lead Renaissance spire of the central tower in 1822. A new iron spire was not completed until six decades later. It was 151 metres (500 feet) high, and for a short time the cathedral became the tallest building in the world.
The Rouen fire is reminiscent of the devastating 2019 fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, which also started during renovation work. The cause of the disaster was the ignition of the wooden roof frame of this cathedral.
