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posted by martyb on Monday April 15 2019, @08:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the they-don't-build-them-like-they-used-to dept.

The deputy mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Gregoire, said the cathedral had suffered "colossal damages", and the emergency services were trying to salvage the art and other priceless pieces stored in the cathedral. A cathedral spokesman said the entire wooden interior was burning and likely to be destroyed.

Sounds like the whole thing may go up in flames. There's a reason for modern building codes. A structure made entirely out of wood, is a huge bonfire, waiting to happen. Thankfully, at this time, there are no reported deaths.

[Update: 2019-04-16 @ 0222: The Cathedral is not "made entirely out of wood" as was suggested above. There is a great deal of stone work in its construction which can be readily seen on its Wikipedia page. I was at work when I heard news of the fire, immediately took a break, loaded the story queue on my phone, saw a story submission on the fire, and pushed it out to the community. In my haste to get the story out, I failed to notice the erroneous claim about wood construction. I apologize for the error. --martyb]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-today-2019-04-15/


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by wisnoskij on Monday April 15 2019, @09:14PM (4 children)

    by wisnoskij (5149) <{jonathonwisnoski} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday April 15 2019, @09:14PM (#830063)

    What does Freeman think modern buildings are made of? While skyscrapers are forced to be primarily made out of steal and concrete by physics, houses are 90% wood and most often 10% explosively flammable insulation, shingles, and plastic siding.

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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Bot on Monday April 15 2019, @09:34PM

    by Bot (3902) on Monday April 15 2019, @09:34PM (#830080) Journal

    > While skyscrapers are forced to be primarily made out of steal
    Your subtle dig at the corruption of the construction industry is noted.

    --
    Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 2) by mobydisk on Monday April 15 2019, @09:47PM (1 child)

    by mobydisk (5472) on Monday April 15 2019, @09:47PM (#830093)

    houses are 90% wood and most often 10% explosively flammable insulation, shingles, and plastic siding.

    I had a bit of fun googling for this stuff.

    Most modern insulation is not flammable. (Fiberglass, spray foam, or mineral wool). Paper cellulose burns well but, living in the Northeastern USA I've never seen that. I'm guessing post-WW2 houses? Drywall is fire "resistant" as are most roofing materials (ceramic, metal, slate). This article claims that asphalt shingles are pretty fire resistant [networx.com] Aluminum siding won't burn, and vinyl is quite fire resistant too.

    By comparison, I think modern houses burn much more slowly.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @10:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @10:11PM (#830113)

      Vinyl siding provides no fire protection at all. It melts and falls off long before things get hot enough to start smoking let alone burn.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @12:29AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @12:29AM (#830192)

    In the great state of Florida, home of the termites and hurricanes, our houses seem to be built 3 ways.

    5% of them, obviously built by crazy people, are indeed wood.

    90% of them are concrete blocks. Frequently they have metal roofs.

    5% of them are proper poured concrete. We put up forms, then pour the walls. You can slam big trucks into these houses and they are fine.