Notre Dame

[Geoff1946]

I see that the latest news from Paris is that the police are saying that an electrical fault is the most likely cause of the fire. Elsewhere I read that the workmen busy in that area claim they switched off the power as they left.  To me the police assumption seems a little hasty, perhaps taken an easy conclusion. Little forensic evidence can have been sorted out by this time.  Could it not just as easily have been a crafty illegal smoke, discarded and smouldering for a time?  What do others think?

 

[Andy™]

probably the roofers and their gas bottles and blow torches. but blame the electrics. should have had an AFDD

 

[phil d]

probably the roofers and their gas bottles and blow torches. but blame the electrics. should have had an AFDD

Yes, that was my first thought, a gas torch, our town hall was burned down long before I was born, that was due to a plumbers blowlamp. A lad I went to school with became a gas fitter with the gas board, he soldered some pipes in a loft and several hours later the place caught fire, turned out his torch had scorched a timber and left it smouldering.

TBH I thought there was loads of restrictions on 'hot work' these days, the last site I worked on had a policy of no hot work later than 1 hour before finish and a bloke went around and checked the area before the place was shut. You'd have thought they'd have had something like this in place on such an important building.

 

[Andy™]

probably management to blame - cant have them standing around for an hour before the shift finishes, so its torch down, then away home. then no one checking because theyve all gone home

 

[Sharpend]

Seeing as it’s France it could be anything, a strike- they like a strike in France- and the roofer/plumber left the torch in a hurry? Probably striking as there were too many fire drills :C  

 

[binky]

whatever happened to having a fire watchman?

 

[OnOff]

 

[Evans Electric]

It could have been anything , lets hope liability insurances are in order . 

We changed some lamps in a church , with  a triple extension ladder .   Fittings were the the standard Tungsten Halogen floods , 500W   unenclosed .  

The second one was about 8 inches from a huge oak  roof purlin   , pointing straight at it .    The oak was black & charred ,   no thought given to how close to fit a  source of heat .  

 

[binky]

View attachment 9957

the chips, the chips, the chips Esmerelda..

 

[ProDave]

I would not like to be the last electrician to have worked on the building, or for that matter the contractor doing the restoration work.

This is the sort of event that could bankrupt the insurance company insuring the renovation. But hold on the public have raised £800m already so no need for an insurance claim then?

 

[Geoff1946]

All insurances have a payout limit which I assume the selling company has to be capable of meeting.

That limit is probably a few million, and sounds astronomical to an ordinary tradesman; until of course you destroy a cathedral!

 

[Tony S]

Seems a very hasty conclusion to me. Given the amount of damage a definite cause is unlikely to be found. The comment about fire watchers is valid given work was being done.

Twice on nights I’ve found fires following hot work being done during the day. One could have been particularly nasty had I not had a reserve fireman on the shift, he stopped me lifting floor plates above a hydraulic main. It took two hours cooling down with fire hoses before we dared lift the plates.