PARIS (CelebrityAccess) Although Monday’s fire devastated Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, it appears that its famed organ with its 8,000 pipes may be intact.
“I thought that if the organ was destroyed, well, it was a part of me that was destroyed,” Vincent Dubois, one of Notre Dame’s organists, told the Associated Press.
“It is a long love story,” Dubois said. “Hearing the sound of this instrument in this magical place transforms a man in a way.”
The organized who was playing the instrument the night of the fire, Johann Vexo, said people at the service didn’t immediately react when the fire alarm rang and recorded messages told people to calmy but quickly leave the building.
“We were all surprised by this alarm. It was the first time we’d heard that in Notre Dame,” Vexo said. “I thought the alarm system was malfunctioning.”
It is too early to tell if France’s largest organ will be playable again. It needs to be dismantled and cleaned.
“The instrument must be completely dusted off, cleaned from the soot, the dust that is inside,” Dubois told the AP.
