Notre Dame Cathedral Fire

We traveled to Paris and London over Spring Break for a family vacation in mid-April 2019. It’s impossible to put into words exactly what we witnessed in person at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.

After several days of touring Paris, we made our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral around 3 PM on Monday, April 15th but the line was too long so we didn’t go inside. Instead, we grabbed a quick lunch at Le Quasimodo Cafe then toured the Conciergerie where Marie-Antoinette was imprisoned and finally, we made our way to see the beautiful stained glass windows at Sainte-Chapelle.

Around 6:30 PM, we debated going back to Notre Dame for the last tour but we were cutting it close because the cathedral was scheduled to close at 6:45 PM. We knew it was a longshot but decided to walk over there anyway. As it turned out, we were walking by just as the fire started.

My daughter was the first to notice the smoke emerging from the top around 6:55 PM. At first, we thought it was coming from a chimney or perhaps from another manufacturing plant in the distance. I took a few photos with my phone then tweeted it out.

Smoke billowing from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. pic.twitter.com/mvx4jN19fH

— David Almacy (@almacy) April 15, 2019

It quickly became clear around 7:15 PM that the fire was going to be devastating. Several things went through our minds. How did this happen? Was this an accident or a deliberate act of vandalism or terrorism? The mood surrounding the neighborhood was fairly calm. Some were panicked but most just stopped, looked, pointed, cried and watched helplessly as the fire intensified.

The amount of smoke continued to grow. As it got thicker, it began to turn colors such as green and orange. We thought it may have been a chemical reaction but later learned it was a result of the stained glass and paintings that were burning which affected the color. Our eyes were burning and our throats started to get scratchy from inhaling the smoke into our lungs so we decided to move to safety and walked along the River Seine away from the fire to watch from afar.

Smoke turning from green to orange and intensifying. Sirens fill the air. We are moving to safety. pic.twitter.com/DQyoPshMBA

— David Almacy (@almacy) April 15, 2019

Meantime, friends told me that my photos were among the first seen on social media about the fire and that my post was trending on Twitter. Several media outlets who had seen it began to reach out to hear our first-person account. I spent over an hour on MSNBC and was also interviewed by BBC, Fox News, Cheddar, Newsy, ABC, Sky News and 3AW Radio in Australia.

Overall, it was an incredibly sad and surreal day but personally, we were grateful that everyone was safe. Our hearts still go out to the French people after this devastating religious, cultural and historic loss and we hope that they will rebuild. The good news is it looks like they will be able to save some of the building and, more importantly, that no one was hurt.

At 3 PM Paris time, this is one of the last photos taken of the Notre Dame Cathedral before the damage, a little over three hours before the fire started.

Here are some of the analytics from my initial tweet which generated over 1.5M impressions. In addition, the engagement was quite extensive in the form of comments, retweets, likes and embeds.