Notre-Dame’s Safety Planners Underestimated the Risk, With Devastating Results
PARIS - The safety system at Notre-Dame was based on the assumption that if the cathedral ever caught fire, the ancient oak timbers in the attic would burn slowly, leaving ample time to fight the flames, said Benjamin Mouton, the architect who oversaw the fire protections.
Unlike at sensitive sites in the United States, the fire alarms in Notre-Dame did not notify fire dispatchers right away. Instead, a guard at the cathedral first had to climb a step set of stairs to the attic — a trip Mr. Mouton said would take a “fit” person six minutes.
Only after a blaze was discovered could the fire department be notified and deployed. That means even a flawless response had a built-in delay of about 20 minutes — from the moment the alarm sounded until firefighters could arrive and climb to the attic with hundreds of pounds of hoses and equipment to begin battling a fire.
Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/world/europe/notre-dame-fire-safety.html. Accessed on april, 30th 2019. Adapted.
Based on the text, there are the following statements:
I. It takes six minutes for a well-conditioned person to get to the attic, according to Mr. Mouton.
II. The fire alarms at the church weren’t trigged immediately after the fire.
III. The fire from the oak timbers was quickly fought.
IV. It took 20 minutes to the firefighters to get to the church since the blazes started.
It’s correct only what’s affirmed in:
