Notre Dame Cathedral fire and its insurance implications

When the Great Fire of London ravaged the city in September 1666, it destroyed everything inside the old Roman walls from houses to churches to St Paul’s Cathedral to the Palaces at Westminster. We only know how it happened in detail because of the diary of Samuel Pepys, one of the great English writers. However, on Monday evening, when a fire started in the attic of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, it was captured on video and in pictures within minutes and shared online only seconds later. The world watched, glued to their screens, as smoke billowed into the sky and the church’s spire fell to the flames. The difference is stark. Emergency services in France will now spend days assessing the scene after the fire was extinguished on early Tuesday morning. The bell towers and much of the outside stone structure has survived, and French cultural minister Franck Riester said that the Cathedral’s “most precious treasures” have been saved.