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It took staff at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris 23 minutes to discover the fire that gutted the historic 850-year-old icon. //
Professor Peter McPhee, a specialist in French history at the University of Melbourne, said he feared "that the sheer heat of that fire may have chemically compromised some of the masonry" in the historic building.
Likewise, the centuries-old timber within the building's internal structure, much of which was crafted into an intricate support structure by medieval artisans, may be irreplaceable.
"One of the extraordinary things about Notre Dame was that ... an estimated 13,000 trees had been felled to create this delicate timber infrastructure," he said.
"Those trees had been saplings in the 10th century, they were mature trees by the 12th century when they were felled. They're the beams that caught fire and then brought the lead roof down with them.
"Is it possible to recreate that kind of medieval artisan work with timber on that scale? Or in fact is that the great compromise you'd make?"