The judicial investigation still in progress has not yet delivered its conclusions. But the accidental route remains largely favored at this stage.
Opened more than five years ago, the investigation into the causes of the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral on April 15, 2019, has not yet delivered its conclusions, with the accidental route remaining largely favored in this regard. stadium. Supported by numerous technical reports and expert opinions, the judicial investigation has so far not led to any charges. In April, the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, declared on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the fire that “all avenues, 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 are to the place of origin of the disaster and the more the analysis results arrive in this file, the more the accidental track is favored,” she emphasized.
New expertise, requested by the investigating judges in 2023, “were carried out, but given the extremely technical aspect, the investigating magistrates requested a summary”, she had specified, “to see if it is possible to determine a cause of the fire.” Asked by AFP at the beginning of November, the Paris prosecutor’s office clarified that the investigation was still ongoing, adding: “The investigating judge ordered an expert opinion requesting 3D modeling of the start of the flame based on images taken during the events. This modeling will make it possible to compare the different hypotheses.”
Failures in cathedral security
At the end of the preliminary investigation, before the referral to the investigating magistrates, the Paris prosecutor at the time, Rémy Heitz, indicated favoring the accidental track, evoking a poorly extinguished cigarette butt or an electrical malfunction. Nothing seems to support the criminal trail since then. Many conspiracy theories are still circulating, claiming that a man was identified in certain videos as the arsonist – CheckNews had documented that it was in fact a firefighter. It is very likely that the fire started at the southeast corner of the spire. According to journalist Didier Rykner, author of Notre-Dame: an affair of state (2023), the fire would have started in a sand pit, a large beam at the base of the frame, located precisely at the southeast corner.
On April 15, 2019, the building, more than 850 years old and famous throughout the world, then undergoing restoration work, caught fire and lost its spire, its roof, its clock and part of its vault, which were destroyed. by the flames. Several failures in the cathedral’s security were identified, notably in the building’s alarm system – which contributed to delaying the call to the firefighters on the day of the fire – or in the electrical system of a elevators. These malfunctions were probably not the cause of the fire, but could have allowed the flames to spread throughout the building.
Lead pollution
Since March 2023, justice has also been investigating the potentially harmful consequences for health of this fire with global impact. In this judicial investigation also still in progress, no indictment has been issued either, indicates the Paris prosecutor’s office. 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 and two parents of students, accusing the authorities for not having taken all precautions to avoid contamination linked to lead pollution caused by the fire.
The plaintiffs were worried about the fall to 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, i.e. “nearly four times the annual emissions of lead into the atmosphere, throughout France”. The judges are therefore investigating possible endangerment to which both local residents and workers who decontaminated the site were victims, according to the judicial source. According to another source close to the case, the same judge is designated in both instructions in order to “to have an overview” of the fire and its consequences.
Source: www.liberation.fr
