Notre-Dame in Paris to get unique fire protection system

PARIS

Paris's Notre-Dame will be equipped with a unique fire protection system when it reopens next year, the head of the body charged with rebuilding the cathedral after a devastating blaze said on Dec. 13.

The landmark church, badly damaged by a fire in 2019, is to reopen in December 2024 after extensive repairs.

"All precautions have been taken for a complete rethink of its fire protection," Philippe Jost, president of the Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris public body, told a parliamentary commission.

Notre-Dame will notably be equipped with a vaporization system, currently being installed below the roof and in the spire, that Jost said would immediately stop any outbreaking fire from spreading.

"This is a first for a cathedral in France," he said.

President Emmanuel Macron promised last week that work on the monument would be completed in time for the December 2024 reopening date.

Macron had initially promised to have Notre Dame restored within five years, in time for the Paris Olympics next summer.

But after early setbacks in the rebuilding effort, he set a new deadline.

Restoration of the UNESCO-listed building, which had 12 million visitors a year, has hit several snags since people around the world watched aghast as its steeple crashed down in the blaze on April 15, 2019.

Jost said Notre-Dame would attract some 14 million visitors per year following its reopening.

Notre-Dame's new spire has started to emerge against the French capital's skyline and is expected to be fully completed when the city hosts the Olympics.

More than five years after the blaze, investigating judges are still looking into what sparked it.

An initial enquiry pointed to it probably being an accident, with an electrical fault or a cigarette among the theories.