(sirens blaring)
(man speaking French)
NEWSCASTER:
Breaking news story.
A major firefighting operation
is underway
at Paris' Notre-Dame cathedral...
(blaze roaring)
(crowd gasps)
(water gushing)
(crowd gasps)
(blaze roaring)
(water gushing)
NEWSCASTER 2: Reports from within
the French Interior Ministry,
the suggestion that
firefighters may not
be able to save this building.
EMMANUEL MACRON: We'll rebuild.
We will rebuild Notre-Dame.
(sirens blaring)
NARRATOR:
On April 15, 2019,
the unthinkable happened.
A nine-hour battle with an inferno
all but destroyed 850 years
of divine beauty,
of vital history, and human achievement.
CANDIDA MOSS:
France is a Catholic country,
and Notre-Dame is the heart
of people's understanding of Catholicism.
It's not just a church.
This is where France
has made its memories.
DANIEL LIBESKIND:
Notre-Dame is really the high point.
It's like the Mona Lisa of cathedrals.
It's not just one more,
you know, cathedral.
It's the cathedral.
There's only one in the world.
NARRATOR:
This is the story of a rescue.
Men and women, heavy with the weight
of history on their shoulders,
must focus on keeping the
cathedral from collapsing.
RMI FROMONT: First time I entered the
nave just after the fire,
my first impression was this big void.
Also, the smell of the fire
that was very strong.
PHILIPPE VILLENEUVE:
I said to myself, "Oh, my God!"
"What happened? It's horrible!"
It's like...
I'm living a nightmare.
MONSIGNOR PATRICK CHAUVET:
I think Notre-Dame is in pain.
She was seeing 35,000 people a day.
Today... no one.
Emptiness. Silence.
NARRATOR:
Now dozens of workers and craftsmen
from all over France fill the void.
Before the fire struck,
the cathedral was in the midst of
a $6.8 million restoration.
An enormous scaffolding was erected
around the base of the spire
that would become an unlikely
and dangerous character in the year ahead.
Philippe Villeneuve is the
chief architect of Notre-Dame.
For seven years, he's overseen
her maintenance and restoration.
Now, he has an entirely different mission.
VILLENEUVE: When I was appointed
to Notre-Dame,
for me, it was...
a gift.
Now when I see the state it's in,
and I think back to that day,
it's a bit of a shock.
LINDSAY COOK: Philippe Villeneuve
was already attached to
Notre-Dame of Paris before the fire.
But the scale has really
increased astronomically.
NARRATOR: The urgent first step
is preventing her from collapsing.
And no time is wasted.
LIBESKIND: The number one challenge
facing the teams at Notre-Dame
is to figure out what is still there.
What can be maintained?
What is the strategy?
It's like planning a m*llitary campaign.
You know, what will you do?
Who will do what?
NARRATOR:
Philippe has called on Rmi Fromont,
who will be his right-hand man
on this extraordinary challenge.
FROMONT:
It's like open heart surgery
when you have to treat
a seriously ill person.
You have to do it very quickly
because it can
deteriorate very suddenly.
NARRATOR: Given the timeline,
Philippe and Rmi must guide the work
as quickly, safely and precisely
as possible.
After the initial inspection,
the first crucial step
is quickly identified:
the gables, enormous stone triangles
above the transepts,
have lost the support of the roof,
and thr*aten to crash to the ground.
VILLENEUVE: The first priority was
to prevent the gable
above the north rose window
from collapsing onto the street,
and possibly in the apartments
across the street.
NARRATOR:
Just two days after the fire,
emotions are still raw.
Before the team can address
the thr*at of the gables falling,
stone statues at their top
must be removed.
Each weigh nearly 1.5 tons.
With the slightest breeze,
they teeter on the edge.
The perimeter is cordoned off,
as the dangerous operation begins.
Hooked to a crane,
a team of stonemasons
are sent 150 feet up.
NICOLAS DESNOE: Yes, we're hooked to
the crane, but there's a risk of slipping.
NARRATOR:
The head stonemason looks on.
DIDIER DURAND:
I must have lost 10 years of my life.
When you send four men to cut a statue,
the risks are enormous.
DESNOE: As we start cutting,
we see the dust coming into the basket,
it's a big cloud of smoke.
And then you think,
"It's possible the statue might fall."
If the statue lands on the basket,
we're dead.
You really think about your life,
you don't want to die.
DURAND: I'm not hiding the fact that
at the end of the day, we take...
Excuse me...
but this is something that...
That's it.
Stop.
(crowd cheers)
NARRATOR: The risk paid off,
but this is just the beginning.
DURAND: The greatest moment
was when all the firefighters
from the highest to the lowest rank
applauded all my men.
NARRATOR:
With the statues removed,
they can now focus on
stabilizing the gables.
COOK: The stone gables on the north
and south sides of the building,
were placed there
to cover up the wooden roof.
And when the roof b*rned down,
this meant there was nothing
holding up that stone gable any longer.
NARRATOR:
The carpenters get to work,
building and installing
a massive wooden brace
to restore the stability
lost with the roof.
There's only a narrow space
between the gable and the scaffolding.
Carpenter Yann Meusnier
must cautiously guide
the wooden brace into place,
averting any collision.
The massive scaffolding,
m*nled and melted during the fire,
is very unstable, and threatens
to bring Notre-Dame down.
LIBESKIND:
It's very vulnerable.
The entire structure is really
standing on the basis of hope.
It's not standing on
solid ground which is safe.
It's just standing in hope.
YANN MEUSNIER: It's an intense feeling
when you're up there.
You're 30-35 meters high
with the wind blowing in your face
and these monstrous
wooden braces coming up.
The rush of adrenaline is very strong.
Okay, Pascal. 4 meters from the gable.
Go ahead, it's good.
You've got this famous scaffolding.
We don't really know if
it will hold or not.
And there are the gables.
It's a challenge not to touch anything.
It's a matter of centimeters.
(drilling)
NARRATOR:
They did it.
The street and apartments below
are out of danger.
But the scaffolding continues
to be unpredictable.
A piece just fell below.
A safety net is imperative
to protect the workers and Notre-Dame.
GRGORY VACHERON: We don't know how long
the scaffolding will hold.
It could totally
destroy the cathedral.
NARRATOR: Gurin Chatenet
is head of the rope access technicians.
His team has worked on
the bridges of Paris,
museums, and the Eiffel Tower.
Heights and danger are nothing new.
TECHNICIAN 1: We don't want to get
caught on the wood.
If we can still place the cable
in the middle, who cares?
TECHNICIAN 2:
We'll put the cables much higher.
TECHNICIAN 1:
Yes, that works!
And then we'll connect them here.
Shall we do that?
GURIN CHATENET:
With the condition of the scaffolding,
we are not allowed to go underneath it,
and put someone's life in danger.
So, we'll use the rope launcher
to sh**t the cables through.
It's an air p*stol that allows us
to cross long distances.
NARRATOR:
There is no room for error.
CHATENET: When you sh**t,
you must calculate
if it's going to pass.
Where it's going to land.
Across the way,
we have a work of art,
it's classified as heritage.
We can imagine all sorts of scenarios.
We can't risk hitting a stained-glass
window on the other side
or that the scaffolding might wobble.
You have to sh**t straight.
NARRATOR:
If he hits the scaffolding,
the impact could start
a chain reaction,
collapsing the entire fused structure.
If he overshoots,
one of the iconic
stained-glass rose windows
just beyond the scaffolding,
could shatter.
(f*ring)
(f*ring)
NARRATOR: The sh*t made it
cleanly across the distance
between the north and south transepts.
CHATENET:
You got enough there?
I don't know if I really wanted to do it.
But, I knew it was up to me.
NARRATOR:
The netting is secure,
hopefully keeping debris
from falling on the workers.
But now a bigger problem
threatens the safety of the crews.
And proves much more
difficult to contain...
Lead.
LIBESKIND: Lead was a
conventional material for roofs.
It was a covering. It's a metal.
But when it was done,
people didn't understand
that lead had catastrophic
impact on the environment,
on people's health.
NARRATOR:
During the fire,
200 tons of lead used as roofing
dispersed into the sky,
and lodged in the rubble by
melting or drifting as a dust.
Strict protocols are imposed,
given the danger it represents:
protective suits, respirators,
and regular blood tests.
MEUSNIER:
It's a full suit that we wear with a hood,
we have to work with gloves,
there has to be no air contact,
so we tape the suit to the gloves.
And for some parts of the job,
we have to work with a full-face mask
connected to filtrating
cartridges on our waist.
NARRATOR:
During the summer,
strict decontamination protocols
are added,
slowing the work at hand.
Rope access technicians
risk the most exposure.
Today, their job is to put sensors
on the scaffolding
that will detect the slightest movement...
The slightest risk of falling.
They only have two hours
of filtered air to work safely.
Every move must be precise.
With any movement,
these sensors will trigger an alarm
that will force the evacuation
of the construction site.
Didier Cuiset designed and installed
the scaffolding before the fire,
and now leads the charge to remove it.
DIDIER CUISET:
My guys when they're working
if they hear a siren
they retreat to the basket.
Worst case, if it falls, it falls.
But no one should get hurt.
There are 200 tons that are shriveled.
No one would have thought it
would still be standing.
It's our scaffolding,
we have to take it down.
NARRATOR:
For now, with safety systems in place,
other teams carry on the work
of saving Notre-Dame.
But with every action
the workers take,
there's a risk of future damage.
LIBESKIND: It's a matrix of forces
that are in tension with each other.
It's like a human body. It's all together.
You can't separate the
muscles from the veins
from the bones of the structure.
It's all kind of working together,
and it's ingenious.
NARRATOR:
The ingenuity of Notre-Dame
revolves around a series
of gravitational forces
working in concert.
The vaults push down,
and produce an outward force
on the exterior walls.
The brilliant innovation of the
twelfth century French builders
is the flying buttresses
which absorb the outward thrust
of the vaults,
and channel it into the ground.
This allowed masons to attain great height
using thinner walls,
letting them insert
huge stain glass windows
to illuminate the cathedral.
LIBESKIND: Think of the
cathedral as a piece of music.
A symphony.
Every note is important, every bar.
It's not that you can eliminate this bar,
and take this note out and this.
You would destroy the symphony.
NARRATOR:
After the fire,
the mutual dependence
of each stone was lost.
Now the rope access technicians
are tasked to clear the debris
from one of the frail vaults
which was damaged during the fire.
(banging)
The ribbed vaults are very thin,
constructed only one block thick.
VACHERON: We aren't sure about the
condition of the remaining vault.
We don't know how resilient it is.
I want to tell you that it's
not going to be a problem,
but you never know.
COOK:
If you look up in a Gothic building,
what you'll see is the stone vault.
It's what we might think of as a ceiling.
They almost look like spiders,
the legs of spiders that you find
sort of capping the building,
or like a great series of umbrellas.
So, it's the element that
encloses the central space.
NARRATOR: The fire damaged a vault
above the north rose window.
The weight of the debris
must be removed,
or the vault could collapse.
And the only way to do
that is to suspend by rope.
VACHERON: We must remove the pieces
that are on top of the vault
without adding any extra
weight to the vault,
so we must always be suspended.
Physically it's quite tough.
LIBESKIND: It's really a heroic
and very sensitive effort.
You could see on the faces
of the workmen, their tension.
It's a hard job.
It's not a job everyone could do.
Just put yourself into that site,
and it's overwhelming.
On all sides, what you see is
just overwhelming complexity.
VACHERON:
In an unstable place like Notre-Dame,
we are putting ourselves in danger.
We do everything to try
to control the danger,
but there is no such thing as zero risk.
NARRATOR: The vaults that were
built by hand centuries ago
are now cleared by hand,
piece by piece,
in the midst of ash and lead dust.
LIBESKIND: The people on
the site today are touching materials
that were not touched for 800 years.
They are the first,
let's say, explorers, pioneers,
to touch that Medieval world.
NARRATOR: Everything removed
is sorted and cataloged
by archaeologists and scientists.
WORKER 1: The wood that's up there,
is from this area?
WORKER 2:
From this area, only from here.
WORKER 1:
Okay.
WORKER 2:
That's the easy part.
After that...
- It's going to get messy.
WORKER 1: It's going to get complicated.
WORKER 2: And over there, it's going to
be even more complicated.
That wood is very, very high.
NARRATOR:
Three vaults were punctured,
filling the cathedral with tons of debris.
(water gushing)
Fortunately, during the fire,
Notre-Dame's most precious artwork
and relics were saved.
Most notably, the crown of thorns
believed to be worn by
Jesus Christ on the cross.
MARC VIR: Most people would consider this
rubble to be cleared away.
For us this is not rubble,
these are authentic
pieces of the building
that have fallen
and must be treated as
archaeological remains.
NARRATOR:
The tragedy is an opportunity
for archaeologists to learn more
about her history,
and help with the reconstruction.
The remains are beneath
the pierced vaulted ceilings
and the burnt scaffolding.
With the risk of collapse and lead,
it is too dangerous to send in workers.
So, the research team
employs robotic vehicles.
VIR:
We number every lap of the loader,
photograph the load to
locate where it was found
so we can keep a record of it
and return the materials
where they were found.
This stone was very well selected
because most of the elements
that we can see are intact.
The good news
is that these pieces can be
put back in place.
NARRATOR: The countless wood beams
among the wreckage
were well hidden for centuries,
until now.
Most of Notre-Dame's
13 million visitors a year
would never know that
above the magnificent vaults
was a complex wooden
lattice called "the forest."
One thousand newly felled oak trees
made up the structure
that once supported the lead roof,
and in turn,
supported the limestone walls.
LIBESKIND: That wood was
hundreds of years old.
It connected in ways that
to us are mysterious.
NARRATOR:
Of the thousands of wooden beams
that formed the framework of Notre-Dame,
there is nothing left.
All reduced to charred debris.
LIBESKIND: I was very sad
when I saw the charred wood,
the beams completely destroyed.
And I thought the body of the cathedral
could be charred and destroyed,
but the spirit of the
cathedral still lives.
(chainsaw buzzing)
VIR: Each piece of the
framework carries a history.
Especially the history of
the environment,
the history of the
landscape around Paris,
the history of the climate.
All this was stored
in these ancient beams.
So that's why the fire is such
an absolute tragedy,
such an irretrievable loss.
In fact, we can consider it
a burnt library.
Luckily not everything was b*rned.
What has b*rned badly,
we will try to make it speak.
NARRATOR:
As the archeology team is determined
to make the relics speak,
so are the police.
They work in tandem,
searching for clues to how the fire began.
And then a prize:
they've just found a piece
of the fallen spire.
Perhaps a lead.
But they will need to dig further.
Notre-Dame's damages run deep
in many more places,
and each team is working to treat her.
The fire heated the limestone
to such extreme temperatures
that as the flames were doused by water,
the stones radically cooled,
changing their structural integrity.
(knocking)
(speaking French)
The limestone is inspected,
looking for weaknesses and micro-cracks.
But now, nature threatens Notre-Dame.
NEWS ANCHOR: The current situation
of the storm Miguel
with strong gusts of wind,
it's a rather unusual storm, eh?
The wind peaks at 90 or even 100
kilometers per hour.
Be very careful throughout the
day until this evening.
(wind gusting)
(rain pattering)
NARRATOR:
The violent storm sweeps through Paris.
(wind gusting)
(birds chirping)
Notre-Dame appears unscathed.
But the scaffolding is not.
The sensors revealed that the
storm had moved the structure
10 centimeters at its top.
Didier Cuiset had forbidden any access
to the scaffolding during the storm.
But not everyone listened.
CUISET:
A stone can be replaced; a man cannot.
Once you understand this,
you'll understand everything.
You are reckless. You are reckless.
If you want to go up
the stairs and take risks,
it's your risk, not mine.
FROMONT:
Didier, you're right to point that out.
We've been seeing the scaffolding
like this for two months.
We see it every day; we're used to it.
But we have to be careful
and remember that today,
it's not considered stable.
NARRATOR: The constant
presence of the scaffolding
had made some workers complacent.
Still, it remains a real
and present danger.
NARRATOR: Since Notre-Dame's foundation
was first laid in 1163,
thousands of workers have built
and transformed the cathedral.
The first major renovation
began six centuries after her completion,
following the enormous success of
Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
The architect-in-chief,
Eugne Viollet-le-Duc, led the campaign.
COOK: The idea of an architect-in-chief
is a very noble one in France.
It goes back, really, to the 19th century,
and there's a long history of architects
from Viollet-le-Duc onward.
They changed the building quite a bit.
That's the building that we know the most,
that version with the great spire
that was much larger than the original
spire that was on the building.
That features a great variety
of gargoyles as well.
That's the version of the building
that Viollet-le-Duc brought us.
NARRATOR:
The spire was erected in 1859.
COOK:
Over time, bit by bit,
as they decide to be
a little bit more modern,
pushing the envelope
with this restoration,
it becomes something that
is much taller, much bigger.
It was a really hulking structure,
and very much fitting in with the time.
(blaze roaring)
NARRATOR:
But as the roof burns,
the spire crashes through
the ceiling like a m*ssile...
piercing the vaults below.
Loose blocks risk falling
at the edge of the hole.
The rope access technicians
face another perilous operation.
VACHERON: Our job is to make things safe.
If we're here, things are still unstable.
But today, it's really very unstable.
The problem is that it's an arch.
All the stones are held together.
If you remove one,
it's like a house of cards.
We don't know what will
or won't hold.
It's a risky operation.
I've reminded the teams that
the most important thing is ourselves.
If stones fall, it's just stones,
it's not a human.
VILLENEUVE: We compare our job to
that of a surgeon,
with a heavy hand,
depending on the sensitivity.
But our primary role is still to
intervene in a rather surgical way.
And we don't want to
leave scars behind.
TECHNICIAN:
Be careful. This is moving.
This is moving.
CHATENET: It's going to open a little bit,
but it won't go away, I think.
CYRIL: Gurin, this one doesn't move.
Can I hold this one instead?
CHATENET:
Yeah, hold both if you can.
CYRIL:
Okay.
I have one coming out, I think it can...
there it goes, it's coming towards me.
It's free.
I have both.
CHATENET:
Remove this one quickly.
COOK:
If one stone is taken out of place,
you then have a problem of wondering,
is the entire arch now going to be lost.
You might think of it like a
game of Jenga almost, I mean,
that you can imagine that
some pieces could be taken out
without any problems,
any structural problems,
and in other cases you can't,
and your whole vault will fall down.
TECHNICIAN 1:
Is it moving?
TECHNICIAN 2:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
CHATENET Put it in.
Cyril, put it in the bag.
That's it.
You'll need to remove Coco's.
Is it holding there?
If it comes out and takes the rest,
everything will fall.
Bring it towards you.
That's great. Super.
Perfect.
NARRATOR:
After blocks are removed,
they are inspected for clues.
VIR: We are going to take
samples of the mortar
to find out if they were using plaster
in the 12th century.
VACHERON: The more we advance,
the more we tear down the vaults
we realize the technique they had
at the time and it's impressive.
VIR:
There were many innovations here
and these innovations are found
in other buildings later.
VACHERON:
How's it going down there?
VIR:
Rope access work of today
is just an improvement
from medieval times.
When it came to grouting the exterior,
they would hang in a
leather bag and grout.
They were not afraid of heights.
We are in a world where,
fortunately, everything is safer
because accidents happen.
But our people from the Middle Ages
were rope workers as well.
COOK: It looks really like
an extreme sport, what's going on there.
And you can imagine that many of the
workers who first built the cathedral
would have been
very young people as well.
I think seeing, um,
sort of very young faces
working for the consolidation
of the cathedral
is really heartening, actually,
to see that everybody's coming together.
VACHERON: I'm only 30 and
it's been here for centuries.
It's really a feeling of...
of sorrow for all the
work done in the past.
NARRATOR: This part of the vault
is mostly clear of debris,
but remains unstable,
upsetting the delicate
counterbalance with the buttresses.
(sirens blaring)
MOSS:
For Parisian Catholics,
the fire of Notre-Dame
rendered them spiritually homeless.
The fire took place during Holy Week,
right before Easter,
which is the most important festival
in the Christian calendar.
Not only were they now mourning the death
of Jesus on Good Friday,
they were grieving over
the loss of their cathedral.
(singing in French)
NARRATOR: Despite the destruction
caused by the fire at Notre-Dame,
no one is discouraged.
The devotion to the work,
and the place, remains steadfast.
FROMONT: There are few buildings that have
this fullness, this harmony.
We realize that this building
has something special.
Is it something spiritual?
Material?
Is it a mix of all this at once?
I think it's a bit of everything.
There is more that
unites all these stones
than just mortar.
LIBESKIND:
We don't even know, actually,
how the cathedrals are constructed.
We have vague ideas,
but they kept it to themselves.
It was part of service to God.
MOSS: There is a certain timelessness
to the structure of cathedrals,
the way that they're built
in the shape of a cross.
The way that the alter is oriented
in relationship to Jerusalem,
the Holy City.
They have a kind of uniformity to them
that represents the story of Christianity
in its very architecture.
LIBESKIND:
It's a total artwork.
Everything in it is an artwork.
It's not a building.
It's a total piece of
divinity brought to Earth,
from the stones that you look
to the sculptures,
to the windows, to the entire space
that has been created.
VILLENEUVE: The entire soul of mankind
is in this mass of stones,
arranged together with a
miraculous ingenuity.
MONSIGNOR CHAUVET: The soul
of the cathedral is its presence.
And we should ask,
"Is this presence still here?"
There are the workers
who have to hold up the stones.
I have to hold up the soul...
and it's difficult.
VILLENEUVE:
I can't imagine, for a second,
doing anything but
returning Notre-Dame
back to the way she was before.
It's my duty.
NARRATOR: The team must now focus
on reinforcing the flying buttresses.
They remain in place,
but now thr*aten to
push the walls inward,
rather than absorbing the vault's forces
toward the ground.
Days after the fire,
Philippe had begun designing
the shape of the support frames,
which allowed engineers to fine tune them.
VILLENEUVE:
It's a mind-blowing achievement.
I didn't even ask them for that much.
I said, "Give me tubes,
give me things like that,"
and they gave me a masterpiece.
NARRATOR: The enormous wooden frames
are lifted high into the air by crane.
MEUSNIER: I was impressed by the size of
the braces that were raised.
It's one of those lifting moves.
Where I'm so focused
it doesn't leave time
to reflect on that.
NARRATOR: There is no way the
operator can see the top of the crane
as it guides the frames into place.
Once they pass behind these towers,
the crane operator will be working blind.
MEHDI DALI (over radio):
It's safe to move. The height is good.
To the right.
A bit more. It's good, clear.
NARRATOR:
The crane crew coordinator, Mehdi,
is the eyes of the operation.
DALI:
Come on, Polo, take it easy.
When the crane operator can't see,
our voice becomes his eyes.
I can't make a mistake.
10 tons slamming down
can do a lot of damage.
If it has to clear by a centimeter,
how else are we going to install it?
(over radio):
Just a little bit.
That's good,
stay like that for two minutes.
All right.
Easy.
Easy.
WORKER:
Stop. Stop.
WORKER 2: We'll put it in like this.
Ease up a little.
DALI:
You have to look everywhere.
Everywhere.
At the base. Up. Down.
Easy.
Easy, Polo.
Polo, go back up slowly, to the left.
Left.
Stop. Stop.
WORKER 1:
Halt.
DALI: Stop.
WORKER 2:
It's stuck.
WORKER 3:
It's stuck, right?
NARRATOR: As the wooden braces
are being guided into place,
the risk of breaking a
flying buttress is high.
MEUSNIER:
There could have been a chain reaction.
It's like a house of cards.
If one falls, there could
be another, and so on.
WORKER: If you turn it a little,
we'll pick it up like that.
Then we'll orient and
it shouldn't be too bad.
DALI: Come on Polo.
Easy, easy, easy, easy.
NARRATOR:
It all comes down to a few millimeters.
DALI (on radio):
Easy.
Stop lowering. Just a little bit.
Just a little bit.
FROMONT (off screen): There is no play in
the assembly bolts,
it's impeccable.
DALI:
And once it's set down,
there is an a*t*matic relief.
That it, it's done.
(drilling)
NARRATOR:
One successfully in place,
many more to go.
It takes several months
to install the rest.
The building is now
secured from collapse.
If a vault does fall,
the wooden braces will hopefully
prevent the walls from caving in.
Next, the vexing challenge
of dismantling the scaffolding
can finally be addressed.
The burden weighs heavily on Didier,
whose scaffolding
continues to thr*aten
the total collapse of the cathedral.
CUISET: Nights are not very restful,
that's for sure.
NARRATOR: Everyone seems to question
why it hasn't been taken down.
CUISET: "How come it's still not
dismantled? How come?"
That's the vision of people who
see it from below.
I've heard so many things.
"You should come with a crane,
lift it up and take it off."
Yes, of course. Yes.
Like that, it would all fall apart.
And then?
A helicopter.
We thought about that, too.
But now we're going to
crash a helicopter over Notre-Dame?
Bravo.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Dismantling the
scaffolding will take months,
but with the rest of
the cathedral secured,
the first stage can finally begin.
This operation is one of the
most dangerous since the fire.
(crane whirring)
The crew will insert 92-foot-long
metal beams inside the scaffolding,
to prevent it from caving inward
so that they can take it down.
An engineer monitors the
slightest movement
indicated by the sensors
as the beams are moved into position.
WORKER:
Give that to me.
(beeping)
(metal clanging)
Move forward a bit more.
Again.
Again, a bit more.
Again.
Okay. Stop. It's not bad.
Again a bit more.
NARRATOR: The 1,700 pound beam
must not, under any circumstance,
hit the scaffolding.
WORKER:
Stop. Wait.
Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.
Stop. Stop. Stop.
Ease it. Ease it a little.
Go. Keep going. Go. Go.
Go.
(metal clangs)
(alarm blaring)
NARRATOR: The metal beam released abruptly
and crashes onto the scaffolding,
causing alarms to sound.
ENGINEER:
Yes.
Yes, it's on that level.
For now, it's the vibrations.
CUISET (off screen):
It moved.
ENGINEER:
In the place of the beam.
CUISET: Maybe it was while they were
putting it down?
ENGINEER:
Yes.
CUISET: Once you hear the alarm
on level two, that's it.
We have to look at the graph,
before they go any further.
Right now, they're on standby.
FROMONT (off screen):
It's sounding again, isn't it?
ENGINEER:
Yes.
(indistinct chatter)
FROMONT: we're going to evacuate the
area around, just in case.
Obviously, it's because they
put the beam down
it created a vibration
on the scaffolding
which got picked up
by the sensors
and sounded the
alarm in all directions.
Now it's stable again and
back to its original level.
So, we believe there is
no longer a problem.
NARRATOR:
The scaffolding only vibrated
before resuming its original position.
(metal clangs)
After the alarms go quiet,
the crew can complete their mission.
(wrench clicking)
Surrounded by these
large red beams,
the scaffolding is finally stable.
And now they can move on to the
arduous task of taking it apart.
Less than a year after the fire,
the main dangers of collapse
have now been averted.
Every man and woman who has
worked to save the cathedral
has accomplished this historic task.
VACHERON:
Yes, I'm very proud.
It's only a matter of time,
before I get to tell my kids,
my grandkids
that I was part of all this.
MEUSNIER: With the right people,
we can move mountains.
I need that to thrive on a job site.
LIBESKIND:
It's not only technical.
It's a thoroughly emotional endeavor.
You're in the presence of something
that was created for God,
and you are touching it,
and you're trying to resurrect it,
and you are not a god.
Saving Notre-Dame (2020)
Moderator: Maskath3