Search for cause of fire: workers on the roof of Notre-Dame disregarded smoking ban

Before the conflagration of Notre-Dame, workers on the roof of the Paris Cathedral apparently disobeyed the strict smoking ban. The scaffolding company Le Bras Frères acknowledged that, according to the news agency AFP.

Some of the employees would have "overruled the ban from time to time," it said from the company. "We regret that." Company employees had set up a scaffolding around the 90-meter-high pinnacle on the roof of the cathedral for renovation work. He had collapsed in the fire.

Company spokesman Marc Eskenazi campaigned for understanding for the workers who had disobeyed the smoking ban. It was "a bit difficult to get off the scaffolding because it took time".

Eskenazi denied that the smoking of the workers could have triggered the fire. "In no case can a poorly expressed cigarette butt cause the fire of Notre Dame," the spokesman said.

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In the fire, the wooden roof of the Paris Cathedral had been almost completely destroyed. It was not until Sunday that the rest of the building was given the all-clear: all sensitive areas had been secured and stabilized. Until the beginning of the reconstruction, a large tarpaulin should now be stretched over the church to protect it from the weather.