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Flames Engulf Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 15, 2019 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

FATHER EDWARD BECK, CNN RELIGION COMMENTATOR: And, you know the statues and the stained glass windows are just renowned. And so, I just think for pilgrims and people of faith, the horror (ph) is yet to see a beautiful building being destroys, but people have moments of faith, people have been married in there, people who have had funerals celebrated there, it's not just pilgrims (ph), it actually is a thriving, living church community as well.

And so, I think the horror is added to because it has (ph) this otherworldly divine significance for people, and, you know, as recently as -- I believe it was 1991, it was a restoration program and that continued and they continue cleaning it and in 2014 the lighting was updated, so it's been a project of all of these centuries to keep the beauty of that cathedral and try to restore it's beauty when it started to, in some way fade, and yet now to see this is just unbelievable.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, Father Beck, if you can standby for me, I do want to reset what we are seeing here at the top of the hour, it is 8PM in Pairs, and it's a beautiful, warm day in Paris, and you are looking at the cathedral of Notre-Dame aflame. And this is -- at this point the damage is catastrophic, there is yellow smoke and grey smoke and in some parts black smoke pouring from the ceiling of this cathedral as a fire engulfs it and continues to burn unabated.

You have the fire department that is responding, there are fireboats on Seine, but at this point, any efforts if they've been able to undertake them, certainly with the structural challenges of this iconic building have been completely unaffected -- ineffective I should say as we are watching this fire burn, you can see -- I want to bring in Jim Bittermann, from where we're looking right now, we're getting an especially good view of the scaffolding that you were talking about, so the church has been under construction, and at this point, we don't know what the cause of this fire is, but this is -- this is an outstanding question, if this may have something to do with this catastrophe that we're seeing, Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly yes, and there was working going on, although, I must that over the last 40 years that I've been here, I said (ph) there's been work going on at Notre-Dame practically every year as they try to keep up with the ravages of age, to keep the cathedral looking young, but this is going to set it back, way back. As Father Beck was saying, this is a functioning church, in fact my daughter was baptized in the cathedral of Notre-Dame because we lived in the neighborhood back in the early days.

And it is just tragic to see this happening, especially right now during the high holiday season when so many events were going to be taking place, and like Father Beck also mentioned, the Notre-Dame was known for it -- a wonderful, wonderful organ, which was just restored a few years ago. And what remains of that is something that we'll have to see after things get under control here, but they don't seem to be anywhere near that right now. In fact, it seems to be burning out of control, of course, it's a lot of old wooden beam and things like that, and just a few minutes ago, I'm not sure that our listeners were watching, but the Spire that sits at the center of Notre-Dame collapsed and fell down symbolically, expelling (ph) the end of the roof and a real setback for the cathedral.

KEILAR: So, the spire has come down, that fell down and that was -- I mean we could see the skeleton essentially of the spire falling down and so now the consideration is also the inside and how that is going to perpetrate the damage inside of the building. This is an old building, Jim, this isn't -- it's not the kind of building that can be retrofitted, exactly adequately to modern standards, and there are fire boats there on the river, there are fire fighters and fire trucks trying to make it to the scene, but these challenges are clearly too much to overcome for them.

BITTERMANN: Well, exactly, I mean, it sits in a (inaudible), as they call it, a wide open space all around the cathedral. In one sense you could probably get fire trucks fairly close, but getting to where this fire is, the fire appears to be in the center of the building so, getting there would require a rather large, rather tall extension arm of the fire truck to get up that high and to get anywhere near the flames and I suspect their probably going at it from the inside as well but it's still just a very difficult place to get to and I think that we can that from the pictures that are coming out, this is -- this is something that the fireman having access problems, just getting to the fire and getting the (ph) water onto the fire, so it's something that looks like it's going to burn for sometime here.

[14:05:00]

KEILAR: All right, Jim, standby for me. I'm going to bring you back in, in just a moment. I do want to bring in Arash Derambarsh who is there in Paris. His office is minutes away from the cathedral. You have been watching the smoke. Tell me what you are seeing.

ARASH DERAMBARSH, FRENCH PUBLISHER: Gosh, it's an amazing thing (ph). Everybody is crying on the -- it's very sad because Notre Dame Cathedral is the symbol of Paris and the symbol of France.

This church for France, for everybody is a symbol of (inaudible), the symbol of (inaudible), the symbol of (inaudible), the (inaudible) of France. And it's so sad because nobody can do something. This is a very amazing thing that we are seeing everybody.

KEILAR: And so, as you watch Arash, you said it seems that nothing can be done here. There you hear the sirens, right? I mean you're hearing the fire department respond and yet they don't seem to be able at this point to intervene.

DERAMBARSH: Nobody can (inaudible) first but I think that everybody said that this is a problem of technique (ph), a technical problem that this is the origin of the fire maybe. I don't know.

But we are afraid because of the attacks (ph) in France three years ago. We are so paranoid (ph) now on the -- we don't know about the (inaudible) importance today now -- right now to stop this fire because this is the symbol of France and we have to do something immediately.

The President of France, Macron, Emmanuel Macron stop his speech tonight because this is a very most important situation for us for the French people.

KEILAR: That's right, the French president had an address and he is delaying that--

DERAMBARSH: Yes.

KEILAR: -- in light of this which just shows you how significant the damage to this national treasure is going to be. And so Arash, is Paris stopped essentially just talking about this and watching this. You must be able to see this from all over the city.

DERAMBARSH: Everybody's afraid right now because of this situation. Because we don't know exactly what happened. The first (inaudible) come in to fire persons are coming immediately to do the best watch an eye on everybody hope that we stop this fire because a lot of parts of the church could be maybe (inaudible).

And we are very sad to see that. Very, very sad and we are afraid. Are we frightened? Yes.

KEILAR: And what are you afraid of?

DERAMBARSH: They're afraid because this church is a very important church for us. This is the most important, the symbol of the church of France. On the (inaudible) of display could be very important.

But it's amazing that this church could be on fire like that because everybody -- it's a surprise for us. I'm sorry I can't (inaudible) my words because we don't understand how it's possible that this church is coming to be on fire because of--

KEILAR: Sure.

DERAMBARSH: -- (inaudible) problem. It's impossible for us. Impossible.

KEILAR: And it is impossible as we watch along with you, Arash. Thank you so much--

DERAMBARSH: Thank you so much.

KEILAR: -- for speaking with us from Paris as you see this. What you are seeing right now, this is the cathedral of Notre Dame. It is on fire. These are pictures from moments ago. You'll see that spire there on the left side of your screen that has fallen through the roof of the church.

That is the side of the front facade that you're seeing on the right side of your church. It's sort of a double tower for lack of a better architectural word facade that you can see from the front. And these flames have been coming really from the back roof of the cathedral of Notre Dame. And they have been moving closer to the facade.

We have a description from one of our reporters there on the scene of cinders on fire, small pieces of wood, flammable material actually coming down on people there. Her hair got singed as people started to move away.

Because this started as -- well the first pictures that we were seeing coming in, you could see smoke coming from the cathedral of Notre Dame. Then there were visible flames. And then it just became fully engulfed through the roof. You can see there is scaffolding there. This is the area where the spire once stood.

It has since crashed through the roof of the cathedral of Notre Dame. This iconic building, this icon of gothic architecture, this very important building and structure to Paris, to the Catholic Church, this is a church community.

[14:10:00]

This is a historic building and this is something of such national significance to people in France and to the Parisians who are there aghast, many of them standing with their hands to their mouth, as our Melissa Bell told us, in disbelief really.

We just heard from Arash. He is watching. This is -- the idea of this happening is impossible. Jim Bittermann that's -- I thought that was really something that encapsulated along with the president of France who had addressed tonight delaying that.

This is -- this not just a historic building. This is a -- this is a national tragedy. The loss of and the damage certainly of this cathedral and at this point in time there are so many answers, we don't even have the cause of this fire, weather anyone has been injured in this fire. Jim?

BITTERMANN: Absolutely. President Macron, by the way, just tweeted a minute ago that this is an emotion for the entire nation. I'm thinking about all the Catholics and the French people.

I'm sad to see a part of us burning. And that goes back to what you were saying Brianna about what this cathedral means to the French people and what a symbol it is for the entire nation.

We're hearing from the mayor of the fourth (inaudible) fourth district of Paris area (ph) why -- by -- who says that the entire island Ile de la Cite, where the cathedral sits has been now closed off just because they want to keep people away from it, the area so that ... KEILAR: Jim -- Jim -- Jim, pause for me for just a moment because I -- Jim -- Jim, pause just for a moment. I just want to describe to you something that we're seeing on the screen. We're actually seeing -- appears to be several firefighters that are on the screen.

And there is -- there is an attempt here to douse some of the flames with water. But I have to tell you it looks like -- in comparison to what we are seeing, it is a very modest effort, which just goes to the challenges of a building that is this high, that is this old. Jim -- Jim if you can continue and we're going to continue to look at these live pictures when we're finally seeing authorities respond.

(CROSSTALK)

BITTERMANN: I mean the fire broke out in the center of the cathedral -- appeared to break out in the cathedral and as a consequence, you have the cathedral walls all around. And yes, now we're seeing more movement around the outside of the fire as the fireman get access to the -- to the roof top area. But you're right.

It's a -- it's a little bit too little too late in terms of being able to contain this fire right away and to limit the damage. I think one of the things that has to be in their minds and in the minds of the fire officials is that right around the Cathedral of Notre Dame, are a number of other historical buildings, you know, including the Hotel- Dieu, which is a major hospital that sits right next door to the Cathedral.

And it is -- it is as well a fairly ancient building. And I don't know that it's so close that the fire would leap over to it but its possible the ashes from the fire could -- could be -- it could be swept by the winds off to some of the other buildings that are sitting around.

Of course it's the most historic part of Paris. It's where Paris was founded. The Ile de la Cite, the settlers settled on the islands and the river because they were good defensive positions against anybody that decided to attack Paris.

And so it's the most historic part of Paris and the oldest part of Paris. And you see this going on this afternoon. As the -- as I said, the mayor of the (inaudible) says that she is cutting off all of the traffic there and she too says that the problems that -- that the fireman are having problems because their ladders aren't long enough to get up or they can't get long ladders in close.

And we understand too that BFM (ph), our sister network here in Paris that President Macron is on his way to the scene of the fire Brianna.

KEILAR: All right Jim, if you can standby for me, I just want to take a moment here and watch this new video that we have coming in, which is showing the moment that the spire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame collapse. Let's listen.

And you can hear Parisians there and tourist no doubt looking on with horror. These -- I want to go to our correspondent Melissa Bell who is live for us there on the scene. Melissa, give us the latest.

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORESPONDENT: Well here just beyond Notre Dame, this is about as close as we can get at this stage because progressively they've been pushing people further and further back.

And as you can see the crowds here are pretty big and what the police -- police men and women and the fire services are saying, the emergency services are saying is that it's just getting too dangerous to be any closer to the structure itself.

[14:15:00]

And what we saw about 15 minutes ago, Brianna, were not just the soot that had been falling from the sky but actually bits of cinder that were burning our hair, getting into people's eyes and hurting people, which is why they've been pushed back so much more.

But clearly, it is a sense of astonishment and bewilderment, shock and horror that has really brought these crowds out, Parisians and tourists alike, to watch the structure go up in flames. And as you can perhaps see, and this is really has close as we can get, this is as close as the (inaudible) allows us to get. You can see perhaps, Brianna, that the water from the fire engine hoses is now reaching up toward the top of the structure. That was not the case a short wile ago.

But now, getting up there to the top of those flames, and it's what we've been talking about earlier on, that that fire is so high, the structure is so high that that was always going to be the difficulty as they sought to get the flames under control. Clearly, a fire that broke out very violently and very quickly, we don't, for the time being, know - yet know why. We don't know what caused it.

We don't know how much damage it's done inside. But just from watching the structure burn over the course of the last hour or so, Brianna, the damage we're thinking will be substantial. The roof appears to have burned entirely. We watched earlier and you could hear the crowds really shout out in horror as the spire went up in smoke and as a part of the structure fell.

So people here really living this fire as they watch it. This is an extraordinary structure, a very historic one, one that people come from all over the world to see up close, visiting both its outside, that famous facade you can see just behind me, but also its insides which we're thinking at this stage, and there's been no confirmation of what damage has been caused, but will clearly have suffered a great deal of harm.

And even as I speak, there's fire engines surrounding it - have surrounded the structure. The water cannons are being directed toward the very top of the roof, and now reaching those flames, but still, those flames continue to burn here in Paris, Brianna.

KEILAR: And so are you seeing any - we've seen - from our vantage point, from one of the cameras, we were able to see that actually there were some firefighters who had gotten up considerably high on the - sort of the outside of one of the walls. And they were - there was - they were pouring some water on to the fire, but it seemed like a - I would say a modest effort when you're looking at sort of what they could offer at least from that position they were in to how big the flames were.

But we are seeing white smoke. You were describing earlier, Melissa, you saw yellow smoke. You saw black smoke. We're now seeing - here we're seeing another in our live picture. I believe that is water cannon coming from a ladder, I believe. And that seems to be making - well, it's hard to see the progress, but that's a considerable amount of water that's being poured on. We're seeing more white smoke. Are you seeing that?

BELL: That's right. The smoke appears to be damping (ph) down. It is clearly not as thick as it was, even about 20 minutes ago. It is not as dark or as yellowy as it was in the very beginning, and also the flames which continue to consume that rooftop - you can see them perhaps from our shot here - they continue to burn that roof of Notre Dame.

But clearly, that water that is even now from those hoses making it way onto the fire is having some effect. And you can see it, as you say, Brianna, by the amount of smoke billowing out. It has changed color, and there isn't as much of it as there were. Also, the cinders falling from the sky falling, just a few moments ago onto our hair, have now stopped falling.

So some degree of control is being brought to this fire. But still, this is likely to go on for some time. It was a very large fire at its height, and that hire rooftop of Notre Dame for a while was consumed by flames that went up as high as the two towers of that facade, that iconic facade. That's how high those flames were only about 20 minutes ago.

So some progress is being made. But this is clearly a very violent fire that raged suddenly and took over a very large part of Notre Dame Cathedral. So it will take some time to put it out entirely, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. And so you were on the front side of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. So you are - you - you are seeing through the facade, that view. We are seeing the exact opposite view in the pictures that we're showing on the - on the air, Melissa. So we're looking - we're looking from the back of the cathedral and we're seeing some of the efforts of firefighters.

And I'll tell you what we are still seeing, even as there is some white smoke, even as some of the flames have been beat back by the efforts of firefighters, we are still seeing flames that have to be at least 30 or 40 feet tall. And there's so much what appears to be flammable scaffolding I will say, underneath some of the flames that we're seeing there.

As you're - as you're looking around, as these crowds around you have been pushed back and people - people are watching and they - you've described them. They've had their hands to their mouth. [14:20:00]

They are aghast. Tell us what you've seen.

BELL: Well, we've seen - I've seen over the course of the last hour or so, and it's pretty chaotic here, as you can see. They are continually trying to push the cordon (ph) back, which has gotten so big because so many people are trying to watch, to get a view on what is happening - the policemen and women trying to push people back ever further to protect them from the flames and from the cinders - police cars all around trying to push back what are now substantial crowds.

But yes, Ive seen people crying; I've seen people holding themselves. This was such a shocking sight. And of course, we don't know for the time being whether there have been any casualties, if there were people inside at the time when it broke out, how quickly the evacuation happened. Of these facts, we know nothing for now.

But perhaps you can see there from the shot that we now have at the very front of the cordon (ph), that the - the structure itself, so much of that roof has now vanished with just bits of scaffolding remaining around the building. And those flames appear to be slightly smaller than they were just a quarter of an hour or so ago.

So some progress is being made, but scenes of chaos really here in Paris. It took everyone so much by surprise, security services and fire services. And as they struggle to get through the afternoon traffic, because, of course, this happened just after rush hour, it would have been difficult for those fire engines to get there in time, to get there and to be able to make any progress at all. That appears now to be happening.

We can see the jets of water making their way up, there on to the roof, and putting out some of their flames, bringing the beginning of the fire under control, but clearly a sense of shock here in Paris as Parisians have watched one of their most iconic cathedrals go up in flames.

KEILAR: Yes. It is - it is horrific, as you describe, Melissa Bell. If you could stand by for us, we'll be right back with you. I do want to bring in Patrick Galey; he is there on the scene. He's a correspondent for Agence France-Presse. You're on the phone with us, Patrick Tell us what - where are you in relation - where are you in relations to the facade of the church? Are you near the rear or front of the church? And tell us what you're seeing.

PATRICK GALEY, CORRESPONDENT, AGENCE-FRANCE PRESSE: I've been evacuated across the river now. So I'm on the north - I'm on the (inaudible). I'm looking at the rear of the two towers, and I can see that the roof has been more or less completely burnt away. A little bit more just collapsed. And in fact, I was on the scene when the spire came down. So, quite traumatic stuff.

KEILAR: And tell - what was the reaction of that? Because that seemed to really be a moment to Parisians who were watching. They were in disbelief, and that sort of punctuated just how much the damage was. GALEY: I think the word is disbelief. You're right. There's people crying, you know, people holding their mouths, walking around in a state of shock and just mourning, really. It's a very surreal scene.

KEILAR: The smoke looks acrid from what we've seen, just this dense, yellow smoke. What does it - what does it smell like there?

GALEY: Yes. I mean it's - actually, as I can see, the sun setting in the background now, the smoke has moved to blot out the sun. In fact, it's - you can - you can hear the burning and you can smell it, even though I'm probably about 100 meters now across the river.

KEILAR: And so - and what is - tell us - and there's a lot of unanswered questions at this point in time. We don't know what caused this. We do not know if there was any personal damage. We do not know if people were inside the church, but presumably there would have been, on a day like this, many people inside the church touring it. This is - this is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Paris.

GALEY: Yes. As to whether there were people inside, I genuinely don't know. But you're right. It is an icon of Paris. It's one of the top three, I think, visited landmarks in the world. And I mean, obviously it's extremely popular with visitors, and it's - you know, it's just unbelievable that this has happened.

I can see from where I'm stood, the vast scaffolding that was erected on the roof and around the spire, and I know that they were in the process of removing and cleaning some of the statues that were on the roof, but that whole structure apart from the (inaudible) scaffolding has now disappeared.

KEILAR: It's incredible as we watch, and just horrific. We've also heard that President Macron had an address that he was delaying. Can you - can you tell us about that and maybe the decision to delay? That speaks to just how significant this fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame is.

GALEY: Again, I'm just on the scene now. I'm here more in capacity as a - as a -

KEILAR: OK.

GALEY: - bystander rather than a political journalist.

KEILAR: I see.

[14:25:00]

GALEY: But certainly, you know it gives you an idea of emblematic and iconic status this historical cathedral has for the French.

KEILAR: All right. Patrick Galey, thank you so much with (inaudible) Press. We really appreciate you being with us. I want to bring back in our Jim Bittermann who has lived in Paris for many, many years.

It does appear at this point in time Jim, but it really speaks to just how much damage and how big of a fire this is that even as you can see on scene the water -- at least one water cannon that we're seeing.

We did see another fire hose that crew had and that's just what we can see from our vantage point here looking from the rear of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. They appear to be making some progress but there are still flames that are almost as tall as facade of this building. We're talking 30, 40 feet at least.

BITTERMANN: Yes, and I -- I think we can say that the roof is now entirely gone. The roof over the central -- the cathedral is completely gone. Just to back up what -- what Patrick was saying there, in fact about 12 million people seek out the Notre Dame each year.

12 million tourists. So it's -- it's something that is just indescribable in terms of the importance it plays in the -- in this nation and not only is the president now heading for the scene but also the prime minister is going to head out.

He's -- he is going to be there at the scene soon and as spokesman for the French Bishopary (ph), the Archdiocese is here. So basically it's a building of our faith and the nation is burning. So sad to see it.

I think it's for anyone that's Catholic, it's such a symbol and to see it just go up in flames like this and so quickly. One of the things that I'm sure is going to -- right away is why this fire spread so quickly.

It was -- there was construction going on but it's hard to imagine that something that the construction workers were doing could have made it spread so quickly. Now we are seeing, of course, some water being sprayed on to -- on to the cathedral but it's just a little bit too little too late.

I mean it's very difficult for the fireman to gain access and they are -- they are having a hard time getting their hoses in proximity and you can see that the fire hoses -- the spray of the fire hoses barely makes it to -- to the flames. So I think the damage is going to be considerable.

This is -- one of the things that should be said is that the churches in France fall under the care of the state because of what happened during the revolution. And as a consequence, anything that's done to rebuild the Cathedral will be in the hands of the states.

So this going to be something that will be looked at once the flames are put out here is the amount and the time it's going to take to rebuild it. There's been a major reconstruction program that just ended in 2000 basically with the reconstruction of the cathedral.

And there were -- stone masons were working in the back log of the cathedral for many, many years; probably a decade or so restoring the stone work and cleaning up the stone work and there was a great celebration in mass there when the restoration was completed.

And of course the organ was just refurbished recently and that -- that -- that too, I'm sure has been at least damaged if not completely destroyed by what we're seeing here this afternoon. Brianna.

KEILAR: And I -- I do just want to reset for our viewers who are watching, Jim, if you can stay with me but this is the cathedral -- this is the Notre Dame Cathedral right in the heart of Paris.

And as rush hour was coming to an end, flames erupting form the roof of the cathedral. We have been witnessing this as the spire from the cathedral actually plunged through the roof, almost entirely destroyed in time, the roof of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

There are fire crews on scene. You can see a water cannon there. But at this point their efforts are mismatched when it comes to just how pronounced this fire is. You can see those flames that you are seeing there, still in these live pictures, even with fire crews on the scene now for some time, have been going 30, 40 feet in the air. Our special coverage is going to continue with Chris Cuomo.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right. Brianna, thank you very much. I'm Chris Cuomo. This is CNN's special live coverage of the breaking news out of Paris. And it is what you see. We are watching history being destroyed in real time.

This is not about damage. This is about the destruction of one of our oldest and best known places of worship on the planet. Notre Dame, known for its Catholic heritage, this has been around since the 1100s. This place is not designed to take on fire like this.

Let alone when there is this ring of kindling essentially around it in the form of that scaffolding. It is mostly wood and metal that has a low cook point itself. So this is the worst of situations except for one facet.

[14:30:00]