VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A day after the historic Notre Dame cathedral went up in flames, questions persist about what happened, what's next, and how the blaze was controlled.
A local firefighting expert said the massive fire would have presented a special challenge for crews, as they wanted to preserve as much as they could of the historic structure while putting out the flames.
Fire science program manager and associate professor at Tidewater Community College Richard Dienst said certain firefighting techniques can do more harm than good.
"They have the added difficulty of trying to preserve the structure itself," Dienst said. "They were talking about, why didn't they do water drops from the sky or something – A lot of damage there because water weighs a lot and it can create a lot of damage itself."
Dienst explained dropping water from a helicopter onto an already damaged structure could cause it to cave-in.
"Water is heavy," he said. "And you put water on top of something that's starting to burn away and you just add more weight to it and it can expedite the collapse process."
Witnesses became emotional as they watched the historic and religious icon burn.
Firefighters spent hours getting the flames under control.
"They said that it was a forest inside there with wood because the whole inside was wood. So once that took off, the whole thing went up." Dienst said. "It's always a red flag when a fire starts and there's construction, you think maybe something happened."
Dienst said the flames are out, but for fire investigators, the work is just beginning. It's now up to them to determine how the fire started.
"Obviously the biggest thing that they've got going for them is that there were people inside probably when it started. Witnesses," he said. "What did you see? What did you do? What did you hear?"
Investigators spent the day combing through the charred rubble, assessing the damage.
Dienst said of the investigation process: "As big as that structure is - I wouldn't even venture a guess - 6, 7, 8 hours a day maybe. The whole investigation process will take days, maybe weeks."
Early reports from investigators said they believe the fire is accidental.
"When I saw [the fire], my heart sank," Dienst said. "I've been to Paris and unfortunately when I was there [Notre Dame] was under construction, so I couldn't get into it. But I just remember how beautiful it was and how iconic it is and how much it means to the Parisians."