‘The loss is profound.’ Columbia lawyer in Paris watched Notre Dame cathedral burn

Columbia resident Winston Holliday stood in a crowd of shell-shocked onlookers Monday, emotional at the sight of fire shooting from Notre Dame, the ancient French cathedral he and his family had toured earlier in the day.

The 850-year-old building was burning, and all he could do was watch sadly as the steeple caught fire and flames lit the cool Parisian night.

“I’ve never witnessed anything worse, and I will never forget the sound the crowd made as the steeple fell,’’ Holliday, an assistant U.S. attorney, said of the collective moan he heard. “And I won’t forget the magnitude of the inferno. It looked like solar flares going off from the roof.’’

Notre Dame, one of the defining buildings of Paris, was charred but partially intact Tuesday after fire of a still-unknown origin raced through the building Monday night. The burned cathedral left the world mourning for a historic structure that, like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, is one of the defining images of Paris.

One French writer on CNN , Bernard-Henri Levy, described Notre Dame as “one of the beating hearts of France.” French President Emannuel Macron called Notre Dame “the epicenter of our lives” and promised to rebuild, according to The New York Times.

For Holliday, his family’s vacation to Paris turned out far different than expected.

Holliday, his wife and two teenage sons had spent much of Monday touring Paris. Their stops included a morning visit to the Louvre and an afternoon visit to Notre Dame. Once inside the cathedral, Holliday pointed out the rose windows and explained the cross-shaped interior design to his sons, who had never visited Notre Dame before this week.

After a busy day, the Hollidays returned to their inn for the evening when he received reports on Twitter that Notre Dame was ablaze. Since they were only about a mile away from Notre Dame, Holliday rushed back to the cathedral, seeking to verify the Twitter accounts.

Once there, he saw fire working its way from the back to the front of the building.

Eventually, the steeple fell, causing flames to shoot into the sky “like a blow torch,’’ Holliday said in an email to The State newspaper. Holliday said he became emotional as he watched the flames and a yellow-white smoke billow from Notre Dame above the rooftops of Paris. The fire appeared to threaten the renowned rose windows, among the most memorable features of the centuries-old church, he said.

Information about the status of the windows still was developing. But CNN reported that the rose windows, which date to the 13th century, had been saved.

On Tuesday, Holliday said he revisited the area near Notre Dame to see what things looked like in daylight. Crowds of people were snapping photographs of the damage and news crews parked vans throughout the area. The remnants of the building appeared to be in better shape than he had first thought. While the roof is gone, the stone facade appeared to be intact, Holliday said.

Still, the sight of the battered cathedral left him with a lump in his throat.

“The loss is profound,’’ Holliday said. “I choked up again as I was running past it this morning, truly sensing the enormity of the damage. Someone else put it better than me: ‘It was like watching someone going through the Louvre, smashing everything with hammers.’

“There are only so many masterpieces in the world, evidence of what gifted people are capable of. It is all just terribly sad. Paris is appropriately gray and drizzly this morning.’’

Staff Writer John Monk contributed to this story.

This story was originally published April 16, 2019 at 2:09 PM.