火災から２年、ノートルダム大聖堂再建の長く険しい道　仏パリ

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】２０１９年４月１５日の夜、激しい炎に包まれるパリのノートルダム大聖堂を、フランスをはじめ世界の人々は恐怖で身じろぎもせずに見守った。人類の歴史的遺産が永遠に失われるかもしれないという恐れだった。（写真は再建中の仏パリのノートルダム大聖堂）
　尖塔（せんとう）は崩れ落ち、屋根の大部分が破壊されたが、その晩の消防隊の必死の努力により、中世の偉大な建造物は生き残った。それでも再建への道のりは長く険しい。元の荘厳な姿が戻るのは、火災から５年後の２０２４年４月となる見込みだ。
　火災の原因については今も不明だが、捜査当局は犯罪ではなく漏電か、たばこの火の不始末に焦点を絞っている。
　火災直後に再建５か年計画を打ち出したのは、エマニュエル・マクロン大統領だ。２０２４年のパリ五輪開催を視野に入れた計画だ。
　マクロン氏から再建事業の責任者を任命されたジャンルイ・ジョルグラン元統合参謀総長は先月、「２０２４年の大聖堂の礼拝再開に向けて順調に進んでいる。だがまだ多くの仕事がある」と語った。
　実際の修復工事はまだ始まってさえいない。これまで時間が費やされてきたのは、築８５０年の建物の保全作業だ。これには火災で焼け付いた足場の部材４万個を取り除くという骨の折れる仕事が含まれている。
　目標は２０２４年４月１５日に復元された大聖堂で、最初の聖歌隊付き礼拝を行うことだ。

■火災原因の究明
　再建の取り組みは、火災直後から国内外で開始された募金活動で集まった約８億３３００万ユーロ（約１０８０億円）に支えられている。そのうち７０００万ユーロ（約９１億円）は海外からの寄付で、その約半分は米国からだ。
　すでに尖塔と翼廊の交差部の再建用に厳選されたオークの木、約１０００本が乾燥中だ。
　数百人の専門家が大聖堂の復元を追求する一方で、捜査当局は火災原因の究明に取り組んでいる。関係筋がＡＦＰに明らかにしたところでは調査段階は完了し、今後は何か月にもわたり火災現場から収集した全ての証拠の分析が行われる。
　大聖堂の警備の不備もいくつか確認されている。とりわけ警報システムの欠陥により消防隊への通知が遅れたことと、エレベーター１基の電気系統に問題があった点だ。わずか２か月の間に約１００人が目撃者として聞き取り調査を受けた。

■「ハッピーエンド」
　映画会社はこの出来事をドラマ仕立てで再現しようと試みている。
　米動画配信大手ネットフリックスは、パリ消防隊との協力で制作した６エピソードからなる連続ドラマを準備中だ。
　映画『薔薇の名前』で知られるフランス人監督ジャンジャック・アノー氏は、この火災をテーマにした作品の制作に着手している。
　アノー氏はＡＦＰに「主役、つまりスターは、ノートルダムだ」と語った。「そこで描かれるのは、死にかけているのに医者がやって来ない犠牲者の物語のようなものだ…幸いなことに、最後はハッピーエンドだ」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/04/15-11:28）

On the evening of April 15 2019, France and the world watched transfixed in horror as flames ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, fearful that the heritage landmark could be lost to humanity forever.
While the spire collapsed and much of the roof was destroyed, the efforts of firefighters ensured the great mediaeval edifice survived the night. Yet the road to restoration has been long and arduous and it is only expected to return to its former glory in April 2024, five years after the fire.
The cause of the blaze remains a subject of uncertainty, although investigators are so far rejecting any idea of foul play and focusing on a short-circuit or even a dropped cigarette as possible explanations.
With at least two TV dramas and one feature film in the pipeline about April 15, the drama of that night and the race to save the 850-year-old building looks set to be further graven in the public memory.
It was President Emmanuel Macron who set the five-year restoration target in the immediate aftermath of the fire, which would mean the cathedral could be visited again when Paris hosts the 2024 summer Olympics.
We are on course to return the cathedral for worship in 2024. But there is still a lot of work, Jean-Louis Georgelin, the straight-talking former general handpicked by Macron to lead the restoration efforts, said last month.
The actual restoration work has yet to begin. Time up until now has been spent on securing the building, including the painstaking task of removing 40,000 pieces of scaffolding calcified in the fire.
This should be finished in the summer, allowing the full restoration works to begin early next year.
The aim is to celebrate the first full service in the restored cathedral on April 15, 2024, despite delays caused by the pandemic and the lead that filtered out during the blaze.
- 'No certainty' -
The drive is helped by some 833 million euros ($991 million) collected in a national and international donation campaign launched immediately after the fire, although this alone may not be enough to push the restoration over the finishing line.
Of that 70 million euros ($83 million) came from abroad, half of that sum from the United States.
Already, some 1,000 specially-selected oak trees are drying out to reconstruct the spire -- which Macron had been tempted to replace with a modern touch but will now be rebuilt as it was -- and the crossing of the transept.
The interior of the cathedral is today marked by a web of scaffolding, surrounded by nets and tarpaulins, where carpenters, rope workers, scaffolders and crane operators hurry around.
Along with hundreds of experts seeking to secure and restore the cathedral, investigators have also been at work in the probe to work out what caused the fire, sometimes using ropes to take samples high up in the building.
This phase has now been completed and a months-long process of analysis of all the evidence collected from the site will now begin, a source close to the investigation told AFP.
Several shortcomings in the security of the cathedral were identified -- in particular in the alarm system which meant that the alert to firefighters was late -- and in the electrical system of one of the elevators.
Some one hundred witnesses were interviewed in the space of a two month period alone.
But while an accident, possibly caused by a short circuit or discarded cigarette butt, remains the likely explanation, the sheer extent of the damage complicates drawing any conclusions.
The way things stand now, it is not possible to say with certainty that we will one day be able to say what could have caused the fire, warned the source, who asked not to be named.
- 'Happy end' -
But even as investigators try and piece together exactly what happened that fateful night, filmmakers are at work on dramatic reconstructions of the events.
Streaming giant Netflix is preparing a six-episode miniseries produced in cooperation with the Paris fire brigade which will look at the impact of the fire on different people across France.
A rival English-language series is also expected based on a major investigation into the fire carried out by the New York Times.
And French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, who made The Name of the Rose, has also started work on a feature film about the disaster which is expected in 2022 and will intersperse archive footage with drama.
The main character, the star, is Notre-Dame, he told AFP.
It's as if I am telling the story of a victim who is dying and the doctors don't come... Thank goodness there is a happy end.