Before the fire in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, workers on the roof disobeyed the strict smoking ban. This admitted the company, which built the scaffolding around the pinnacle. That’s not the trigger of the fire.
Before the fire of Notre-Dame, some workers apparently smoked on the site. The construction workers had disobeyed the smoking ban on the scaffolding and communicated this to the police, which determined the cause of the fire. A spokesman for the company Le Bras Frères, who set up the framework around Notre-Dame, said that. He confirmed corresponding reports.
„A cigarette butt can not be cause“
Some of her employees have „overruled the ban from time to time,“ the company said. „We regret that.“ But that was not what triggered the fire, the spokesman said. „In no case can a badly expressed cigarette butt be the cause of the fire of Notre-Dame.“ In addition, the workers had gone an hour before the outbreak of the fire, also had the fire broke out inside the church.
Apparently discovered seven cigarette butts
Employees of the company had erected a scaffolding on the roof of the cathedral for renovation work around the 90-meter-high pinnacle, which collapsed in the fire. Company spokesman Marc Eskenazi campaigned for understanding for the workers who had disobeyed the smoking ban. It was „a bit difficult to get off the scaffolding because it took time“.
The satirical and investigative newspaper „Le Canard Enchaîné“ wrote that seven cigarette butts had been discovered on the scaffolding. The investigators would also pursue the hypothesis of a short circuit in the electric motors of the elevators to the scaffolding.
The spokesman of the scaffolding company also excluded this. There were „no problems“ with the engines, he said. In addition, they are far from the pinnacle.
Main organ not damaged
At the government meeting with head of state Emmanuel Macron, a bill for the rebuilding of Notre-Dame was submitted. The law should also allow the government to derogate from certain rules and regulations by ordinance in order to facilitate the work, as government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said. It is unclear at the present time what the reconstruction will cost.
It is now clear that the flames did not damage the main organ of the church. Restorer Pascal Quoirin rehabilitated the instrument in 2017. He said he had been examining the organ for two hours and found no damage that could be related to the fire. The approximately 8000 pipes are in order. The thermometer inside the organ never measured more than 17 degrees Celsius on the day of the fire. This meant that neither the electrical nor the organ pipes would have been damaged.
Notre-Dame of Paris had been severely damaged by a fire in the roof on Monday before Easter. The fire department was able to save the building from total destruction.
