Notre Dame Cathedral Is Burning

A major fire has broken out at the historic French Notre Dame Cathedral immortalized in literature and film. The damage is devastating and ongoing.

UPDATE, 4:14 PM EST:

UPDATE, 5:17 PM EST:

You can watch the France 24 English feed here. There are also live feeds on Twitter and Periscope to keep up with the Notre Dame news. Many Parisians are filming the massive fire, and in some feeds you can see crowds of people standing in the streets, watching horror-struck. The city has ground to a halt as the landmark—one of the most famous and culturally important in Paris—continues to burn. Its striking spire has collapsed, along with a great deal of the roof. I heard the bells ring at one point from the force of the heat.

I’m currently watching via the Twitter event page and France 24 English. There are more feeds to be found on Twitter.

Construction on Notre Dame Cathedral commenced in 1160, though it has been under construction, expansion, and various degrees of restoration ever since. Fallen into ill-repair and desecrated during the French Revolution, it was Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame that helped boost the Gothic cathedral to international fame, making it a must-see destination in Paris.

Speculation on the news at current is that the current restoration project may be tied to the fire; reports at the moment say that no one has been injured.

I’ll be updating this story as we receive more news. I’m absolutely heartbroken.

This is the current front page of The New York Times:

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Kaila Hale-Stern

Kaila Hale-Stern (she/her) is a content director, editor, and writer who has been working in digital media for more than fifteen years. She started at TMS in 2016. She loves to write about TV—especially science fiction, fantasy, and mystery shows—and movies, with an emphasis on Marvel. Talk to her about fandom, queer representation, and Captain Kirk. Kaila has written for io9, Gizmodo, New York Magazine, The Awl, Wired, Cosmopolitan, and once published a Harlequin novel you'll never find.

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