The Notre Dame Cathedral caught on fire on April 15, 2019 in the city of Paris. It was underneath the roof where the fire broke out and it took about 15 hours for the fire to be put out completely. Although there were hundreds of French firefighters working to put out the fire, the spire, as well as most of the roof, was destroyed due to the flames.

What most people cared about were the valuables, such as art and sculptures, that were located inside the building. People obviously also cared about the hundreds of years of history that were inside the building and the hundreds of years of history that the building represented. Many pieces of art and religious artifacts were destroyed. Some artifacts were able to be saved and were taken out of the cathedral on time, but unfortunately, some weren’t able to be saved and they burned as well as parts of the building. The shrine, which was iconic, collapsed completely due to the flames.

People were concerned and worried when they saw that the building was on fire. People were bursting into tears after seeing the monument, that they had seen their entire lives, on fires. People felt devastated because they felt like they were losing something that belonged to them. There are videos that showed people crying and praying, blocks away from the cathedral, for the fire to stop.

People all over the world saw this unfortunate event. The video of the cathedral on fire was all over the internet and all over the news in a matter of minutes. The topic was one of the most talked about during the week that it occurred. People from all over the world reacted to it in a positive way. People started to donate money towards the reconstruction of the building and there was some controversy when a lot of wealthy people also started to donate money towards the cathedral. The president of France, Emmanuel Macro, launched a fundraising campaign for the cathedral. In just one week, there was one billion euros raised and that was donated to the campaign for the cathedral. The controversy was that people saw that the wealthy were donating for a building, but these wealthy donors don’t donate money towards important causes or programs such as those to help the environment, the earth, the poor, or the homeless.

The cathedral was undergoing renovations when the cathedral caught on fire. There still isn’t a definitive reason as to why the Notre Dame Cathedral caught on fire. There are various possible reasons as to why it caught on fire. One possible reason the building caught on fire could be due to terrorism or arson, but officials in Paris do not suspect that that is a possible reason. Another possible reason could be due to a cigarette butt. Yet another reason could be that the fire started due to an electrical problem in the elevator.

Although there was a lot of negative outcomes due to this fire, there was one good thing. There were zero deaths due to the fire. It did cause distress and brought a lot of mixed emotions to the public though. One thing that is for sure is that the history that was burnt isn’t going to come back, even if it is rebuilt. It has also been estimated that the restoration could take up to 20 years or more for the parts of the building that were burnt to be built back.