Name: 為何聖母院火勢迅速蔓延？！ (Why the Notre Dame Cathedral burned so quickly, badly)
Uploaded: 2019-04-19T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 1 min 59 s

Our Lady, Notre Dame, the treasure of Paris is in ruins.

聖母院 (本名 Notre Dame，原意「我們的女士」，指聖母瑪利亞)，這座巴黎寶藏，如今成了斷垣殘壁。

Fire ravaged the 850-year-old church for some 12 hours before it was declared extinguished.

這座擁有 850 歷史的教堂慘遭大火蹂躪，十二小時後火勢才終於退去。

Nearly 400 firefighters battled the flames that altered the city's skyline.

將近 400 名消防員加入救火行列，火焰來勢洶洶，改變了巴黎市的空中輪廓。

The blaze collapsed the cathedral's spire and spread to one of its rectangular towers, as throngs of spectators watched in stunned horror from nearby buildings, bridges and streets.

烈火撲倒了教堂的尖塔，並且擴散至其中一座矩形塔，圍觀的群眾聚在鄰近建築、橋墩和街道，臉上寫滿了驚愕及恐懼。

所以，為什麼聖母院的火勢會蔓延得如此迅速？

Well, its medieval-roof framework consisted predominantly of huge pieces of timber.

是這樣的，它的中世紀屋頂結構絕大多數都是由巨型木材所組成。

The supports were made up of large pieces of wood and were built from an estimated 13,000 oak trees.

屋頂的支架由大塊木頭所建，預估用上了一萬三千棵橡樹。

The original parts of the frame would have been made from trees that first sprouted in the eighth or ninth century.

最初使用的木材結構該是來自八或九世紀就發芽的樹。

Think all the way back before Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI and Joan of Arc, all the way to the Vikings, Charlemagne, and the decline of the Mayan civilization.

想想那是在拿破崙、瑪麗．安東尼、路易十四和聖女貞德之前，維京人、查理曼大帝和馬雅文明崩落之時。

Gun powder had only just been invented when these oak trees came to life.

這些橡樹誕生時，火藥才剛剛被發明。

Over the years, as the church fell into disrepair, crumbling stone was replaced with even more wood, increasing the fire risk.

隨著年歲更迭，當教堂毀損時，碎石被更多的木材取代，也就提高了著火風險。

Notre Dame's website even warned that fire is not impossible.

聖母院的網站甚至警告失火不無可能。

As Notre Dame burned, the outpouring of grief around the world reflected the church's sweeping place in history.

當聖母院身陷火海時，世界各地流露出的悲痛反映了這座教堂的重大歷史地位。

One of Europe's most iconic structures, the cathedral houses a collection spanning nearly 1,000 years, containing French Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements.

作為歐洲最標誌性的建築之一，這座教堂囊括了橫跨一千年的建築特色，包含法式歌德、文藝復興和巴洛克元素。

In fact, 400 years after its birth, French poet Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

事實上，就在它完工後 400 年，法國詩人維克多．雨果寫了《鐘樓怪人》。

At the time, his novel made people more aware of the importance of the deteriorating Gothic architecture, resulting in restoration while placing the Cathedral in the minds and hearts of people for hundreds of years to come.

在當時，他的作品喚起了人們對於日漸毀損的歌德建築的重視，才有了之後的重建，同時奠定了聖母院在未來世代人們心中的地位。

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to reconstruct the historic building, even as the fire still burned.

即使是在大火燃燒當下，法國總統埃馬紐埃爾．馬克宏就已誓言重建這座歷史建築。