In my experience, you don't just "dump" water on a fire, especially in a building that has had its structural integrity compromised by the heat.
Water is used in a fairly precise and efficient way when really putting out a fire, it's more complicated than the Boy Scouts prepared me for :-)
A very small amount of water delivered to the seat of the fire can produce great results. Lots of water in the wrong place just makes a mess and causes more damage.
I'd love to see what their fire preplan looked like for this building. Around here, we have plans on file for every significant building in our community, with details on what to worry about, and how best to approach dealing with the building.
I can't imagine trying to fight the Notre Dame fire once it got going and into the wood support structures and the attic/roof spaces.
In the absence of data, yes, it is a bit far-fetched.
The organized attacks in 2015 were quite different in character than a single-building fire. To leap to the conclusion that this particular fire may be terror related just tells me that the terrorists have done a fine job in making people see monsters under the bed.
Well, it's tricky business, as fire likes to destroy evidence, and firefighters who are fighting fires are pretty good at destroying evidence while they are doing their work.
They sent me to arson investigation school a few years back, because we treat every fire scene here as a potential crime scene until we rule out that possibility, and they wanted me to know what to look for, and what not to destroy until we properly observed/documented it.
Generally the investigation takes days-to-weeks, because it's a pain sifting through the rubble. Sometimes you get lucky and have a firm idea of the cause of the fire early on.
The Paris authorities have already issued a statement on the matter, so I presume they found a plausible, non-troubling source of ignition already.
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