Fire crews in Rouen avert new cathedral disaster

Firefighters in the Normandy city of Rouen managed to bring a fire in its world-famous gothic cathedral under control yesterday, calming fears of another disaster at one of France's architectural jewels five years after the devastation of Notre Dame.

- Lili Bayer

Initial TV images showed a dark plume of smoke rising from the cathedral spire and people in the streets below looking up in horror.

In later images, smoke could still be seen through a gap in the white cover encircling the scaffolding around the spire, but it was no longer rising in a dark column. After about 90 minutes firefighters said the blaze had been contained.

Stéphane Gouezec of the SeineMaritime firefighters said the source of the fire had been located and that crews were working to ensure there were no remaining "hotspots". He told reporters the risk of the flames spreading was low because the fire was in an area where most of the structures were metal.

He said construction workers had been the first to notice the fire and had alerted the authorities.