A French official said Monday the Notre Dame Cathedral’s two towers were safe and the flames were weakening.
WATCH:
“The fire is now weaker,” Secretary to the Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said, CNN reported. “We are now in a time of cooling but both towers of the cathedral are safe. We’re still working to save the cathedral’s work of arts.”
Nunez’s comment comes as firefighters were not sure earlier if they could contain the fire, according to The New York Times.
“The next hour and a half will be decisive,” a spokesman for Paris’s firefighters said, The NYT reported. (RELATED: The Vatican Releases Statement On Notre Dame Fire)
Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said some of the artwork in the Notre Dame was rescued. Firefighters, however, were forced to retreat from the cathedral as the fire spread quickly, The Local France reported.
Nearly 400 firefighters were sent to battle the fire.
A Gothic engineering technique used to keep the cathedral’s top waterproof may have contributed to firefighters struggling to stop the flames.
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