Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – When Dean of the Washington National Cathedral Randy Hollerith saw that Notre Dame Cathedral was on fire, he said he immediately started praying.
“It’s the most terrifying thing to any of us who love and serve cathedrals because we’re called to be stewards of the place for generations yet to come,” Hollerith.
While the National Cathedral looks similar to Notre Dame, there are some differences in how it was built that make it less susceptible to a massive fire according to the cathedral’s director of preservation and facilities Jim Shepherd.
The National Cathedral is predominantly steel, stone and concrete, while Notre Dame had a lot of wood including beams, trusses and reinforcements for the stone structure as well as the roof’s latticework.
A wooden frame in the attic – where the fire started – supported Notre Dame’s roof, but the National Cathedral’s attic has medal trusses that hold the roof up, and the decking is concrete planks according to Shepherd.
A French judicial police official said investigators think an electrical short-circuit may have caused Notre Dame Cathedral to go up in flames. The National Cathedral’s electric systems are up to date and code according to Shepherd. If there was an electrical problem, Shepherd said there wouldn’t be much to burn because, unlike Notre Dame, the National Cathedral wasn’t built with much wood.
“We are pretty risk adverse to fire here, but that does not mean we’re not taking precautions to make sure we’re as safe as possible,” Shepherd said.
The National Cathedral is implementing $3 million fire and life safety upgrade, which includes adding emergency lighting, sprinklers and smoke detection throughout the building to be as proactive as possible to ensure there’s no risk of fire.
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