On April 15, a piece of news hit the world. . A devastating fire had broken out in this French icon and flames were beginning to engulf the roof. You had to be quick to cushion the impact and save the monument that began its construction in 1163.
After the fire broke out, the quick work of firefighters and police was key to saving the 12th-century construction. However, there was a key device to know what was happening in the building, assess the dangers and assimilate the situation: the drones.
In the hustle and bustle of Place Jean-Paul-II, everything revolved around a van with a sliding door parked in a place where cars usually do not enter. Inside, one located a giant screen on which firefighters, police, the Interior Minister and even President Macron himself met. From there the images that the drones were capturing of the basilica were emitted, some extremely valuable data that served the authorities to decide what to do and how to act.
“This giant screen transmitted the images from a drone that was just above Notre Dame. It was showing us the fire live, it became the operations center for the firefighters,” explains André Finot, Notre Dame’s communication director.
The information of knowing what was happening in real time was key to organizing the operation. “The fire commander came and went. He had a big traditional board where he could plot the positions of the firefighters, but every two minutes he came back to this TV screen. We didn’t know if there were any casualties. We didn’t know anything and in this situation, it’s easy to understand that the drone was the most important element. It was able to move forward and was able to get as close as possible. The telephone network was saturated with all the smartphones in the area and I, for example, did not know where my friends and colleagues were, with whom I had previously stayed in that same square. It was the images from the drones, which immediately reassured us all,” says Finot.
Knowledge of first-hand information allowed firefighters and police to act quickly and accurately, without assuming unnecessary risks while resources -which were playing against the clock- were being spent optimally.
Objective, detail the structure
Beyond being the eyes where you couldn’t go and see on the big screen what the fire inside was like, the drones played another fundamental role:
“Drones could also map the stone structure, along with laser systems. In times of urgency, the drone was there to detect all these anomalies. That’s why drones are extremely useful at the time of fires. It was also very useful after the fire, they served to assess the state of the building and make sure that nothing would collapse. In the morning we did not know the state in which the cathedral was really,” says Finot.
Recognition of the structure was key. There were a multitude of elements that depended on others and if one collapsed the rest could have collapsed. In addition, they are not accessible to the naked eye, so the work of the drones was key to access and determine the situation. “We had not entered the towers where the bells could have collapsed. As they weigh several tons, the facade of the building would probably have collapsed. Without the drone, there are still many places where we can no longer physically access, especially at high points, below the vault. A drone can fly and capture photos every day so that the architects can verify if the structure has moved or not,” the head of communication for the Cathedral said in an interview.
“Like a military operation”
But how does a drone work to be the great ally of firefighters? To assess the situation and determine how to act without everything collapsing, the authorities worked together with Artelia’s drone department. The French company specializing in bridges, highways and large structures such as the Eiffel Tower and most of the new skyscrapers being built in Paris, has a drone division, although they had never worked on a project of this magnitude.
The ‘Notre Dame’ operation was not one to use. Not much less. “Our mission at Notre Dame was similar to a military operation. From the beginning we did not know what to expect and had to imagine different scenarios. A good selection of drones was prepared, since we knew that elements of the structure could still collapse on a drone We had to deploy the correct equipment and technical procedures”, acknowledges Benoit Guillot in an interview. Director of the company’s drone program.
Guillot notes that “using drones was the obvious thing to do for this mission. The only tools we could use to work and create 2D and 3D images under the vault were robots.
Flying helped us get closer to the details of the structure that we wanted to see.” Every piece of data was gold and had to be secured and had as soon as possible. “Only drones can provide this video image transmission so quickly. As soon as the drone takes off, you can see what’s going on.”
To be more effective, beyond the pilot of each drone, Artelia deployed a team of five people constantly working on the batteries and SD card management. Every piece of information was invaluable. So much so that they were saved in triplicate and made sure the drones were always ready to fly.
“We were able to monitor and map the area we needed while still being safe in
Cathedral. Without drones we would never have been able to record, monitor and analyze everything so easily, quickly and accurately,” explains the company’s drone manager.
Different drones for different needs
As important as having different human profiles working together to achieve the data, it was also important to have a variety of aircraft to be able to undertake different activities. The drones they used at Notre Dame were the Phantom 4 Pro RTK, the Mavic 2 Enterprise and the Matrice 210. Three DJI drones of radically different sizes that worked the Cathedral from different fronts.
The former was used to capture the interior and exterior of the cathedral for 3D mapping and modeling of Notre-Dame, and was used to sneak into confined environments within the building. The Matrice 210 for its part was used to capture images from below the vault. Lastly, the smallest of all, the Mavic 2 Enterprise was used to monitor the hot spots, making sure the fire had been properly extinguished.
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