Social media posts revealed flames shooting from a scaffolding canopy close to the top of the structure, which is well-known for having three towers with hundreds of years’ worth of architectural history combined.
The reason the Gothic church is so well-known is because French impressionist painter Claude Monet depicted it several times during the 1800s.
“The spire of the Rouen Cathedral is on fire. Origin is currently unclear. “Every public resource has been mobilized,” the mayor of the city, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, stated on X.
Building work was going on in the area where the fire originated, according to regional authorities.
Emergency personnel are on the scene and the cathedral has been evacuated.
Images from TV showed people in the streets below staring up in terror as a heavy column of smoke rose from the spire.
Many were reminded of the 2019 fire that devastated the roof of Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral, which is only expected to be rebuilt this winter following an extensive renovation process costing millions of euros.
