Ok but the fact of there being some construction going on is somewhat ancillary to the whole point being made of the various factors observed and at play here that come together and raise some questions. I could have easily left the “what is the rate” part out, and the points made would have been just as strong or stronger.

And yes there was some sort of maintenance/construction going on, and if that played a role in the fire one would think at some point in the intervening years between then and now someone would have shown how it played a role.

They did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_fire#Investigation

Workers were smoking in a space where it was explicitly not permitted, and renovation work meant there was electrical supply where "normally, no electrical is allowed in the roof space because of the extreme fire risk".

Pinpointing the exact source of ignition is a bit challenging given the fire and collapse, I suspect, but without any evidence pointing towards arson it seems like a pretty reasonable conclusion.

Were they smoking there in the moments immediately preceding the fire, and a dropped cigarette and maybe some sawdust or something somehow ignited a 35cm or whatever wide beam? And the smokers didn’t notice? But I think the answer is there weren’t any construction workers around in the time before the fire to be smoking anyway.

“Maybe it was an electrical thing or something” is far from conclusive evidence, and as OP was saying, completely incredible as a response to an event of this magnitude that attracted worldwide attention.

>pinpointing

I’m always surprised when I hear what fire forensics can figure out given the state of the evidence being worked with.

>any evidence pointing toward arson

The whole point of my original post was that all the circumstantial evidence points toward arson.

> The whole point of my original post was that all the circumstantial evidence points toward arson.

What evidence are you talking about?

The evidence that he is Catholic and there is a war on the West and therefore some foreign migrant construction worker did it on purpose as an attack on christian cultural heritage.

Duh.

I don’t think it is cool to put words into other people’s mouth. I’m sure canoebuilder can speak for themselves.

>and a dropped cigarette and maybe some sawdust or something somehow ignited a 35cm or whatever wide beam? And the smokers didn’t notice?

You clearly don't know how fire works and just how quickly it spreads. You also vastly underestimate how flammable the roof material was.

>all the circumstantial evidence points toward arson

Pray tell them, instead of slinging vague provocations. Better yet, if you have such clear evidence, I'm sure you're gonna go to the police or the papers with it, right?