07/18/2020 - 5:57
- Clarín.com
- World
Firefighters managed to control this Saturday the fire that broke out early in the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Nantes (north-western France), and whose magnitude is not comparable to the one that occurred in Notre Dame de Paris in April 2019 .
"For now the fire is circumscribed," said the head of the department's fire department, General Laurent Ferlay, speaking to the press in front of the cathedral.
Ferlay affirmed that "we are not in a stage like the one of Notre Dame" on April 15 of last year, when a good part of the roof of the cathedral of the French capital was destroyed.
Front of the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul of Nantes. / REUTERS / Stephane Mahe /
He added that the situation is also not comparable to that of the fire that the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul of Nantes suffered on January 28, 1972, which left the building badly damaged.
Firefighters were alerted this morning at 7.45 am (5.45 GMT) and when they arrived they forced the doors. The fire was concentrated in the area of the organ, next to the rose window on the façade.
Firefighters working in front of the Nantes cathedral. / Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS / AFP /
That is the area that has been most affected by the flames, said Ferlay, who said that 104 firefighters are working on the ground and that they would remain there at least all day today.
The city's mayor, Johanna Rolland, congratulated herself on "the professionalism" of the teams that have fought the fire and for their reactivity.
Rolland agreed with the general of the fire department that the situation is not comparable to that of 1972. The Nantes prosecutor has begun investigations at the cathedral to determine the origin of the incident.
Source: EFE