Justice is still looking for what triggered the fire at Notre-Dame

Photo: Philippe Lopez Agence-France Presse This file photo taken on January 6, 2020 shows a crane near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, which was partially destroyed when a fire broke out under the roof on April 15, 2019.

Guillaume Daudin – Agence France-Presse in Paris

Published yesterday at 11:47 p.m. Updated yesterday at 11:54 p.m.

• Europe

The investigation into the causes of the Notre-Dame fire has been fueled for over five years by numerous technical reports and some expert assessments are still in progress, but this has not resulted in any indictment at this stage.

In April, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau declared on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the fire that “all the possibilities, including the hypothesis of human intervention at the origin of this fire, [were] explored since the beginning of the investigations.”

“But it is true that the closer the searches have gotten to the place where the fire started and the more analysis results are arriving in this case, the more the accidental possibility is favored,” she stressed.

The senior magistrate had also mentioned the new expert reports requested by the investigating judges in 2023 “targeting what was found in the rubble, the starting point of the fire and the existing technical infrastructure in the cathedral.”

These analyses “have been carried out, but given the extremely technical aspect, the investigating magistrates have requested a summary,” she specified, that they be “made consistent to see if it is possible to determine a possible cause of the fire,” the prosecutor specified. “”

Requested by AFP during the week, the Paris prosecutor's office specified that the investigation was still ongoing, adding: “The investigating judge has ordered an expert report requesting 3D modeling of the start of the flame from the images that were taken during the events. This modeling will allow the different hypotheses to be compared.”

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“No indictment [charge] has been issued” to date, the public prosecutor specified, while a source close to the case indicated that the end of the investigation was approaching.

At the end of the preliminary investigation, before the case was referred to the investigating magistrates, the Paris prosecutor at the time, Rémy Heitz, had indicated that he was favoring the accidental theory, citing a poorly extinguished cigarette butt or an electrical malfunction.

Nothing since then seems to support the criminal theory.

“Over the past year, all of the areas have been cleared” without, however, revealing “any new element that could be exploited,” a judicial source had thus emphasized in mid-2023.

Lead pollution

On April 15, 2019, the building, which is over 850 years old and famous throughout the world, then undergoing restoration work, had caught fire and lost its spire, its roof, its clock and part of its vault, ravaged by the flames.

Several security failures in the cathedral have been identified, including in the building's alarm system – which contributed to delaying the call to the fire brigade on the day of the fire – and in the electrical system of one of the elevators.

These malfunctions are probably not the cause of the fire, but may have allowed the flames to spread throughout the building.

Since March 2023, the courts have also been investigating the potentially harmful health consequences of this fire with global repercussions.

In this investigation, which is also still ongoing, no charges have been filed, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Photo: Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt Agence France-Presse The bell tower and spire of Notre-Dame Cathedral collapse as the cathedral is engulfed in flames in central Paris on April 15, 2019.

“Overview”

Two Parisian investigating judges are thus seized of the complaint filed in June 2022 by the Henri Pézerat association for the defense of health in connection with work and the environment, the CGT union and two parents of students, accusing the authorities of not having taken all the precautions to avoid contamination linked to lead pollution caused by the fire.

The plaintiffs were worried about the fallout on the ground of the 400 tons of lead, a toxic heavy metal, from the roof and spire of Notre-Dame which went up in smoke, or “nearly four times the annual lead emissions into the atmosphere in the whole of France.”

The judges are therefore investigating a possible endangerment that may have been suffered by both local residents and workers who cleaned up the site, according to the judicial source.

The CGT and the Henri Pézerat association were heard as civil parties.

According to another source close to the case, the same judge was appointed in both investigations in order to “have an overall view” of the fire and its consequences.