'Raining fire': Firsthand accounts from the Notre Dame Cathedral blaze

PARIS – One had been playing music. Another rushed in as dangerous flames engulfed a medieval spire. A third scrambled to find keys to a safe that held priceless relics.

Three days after a devastating fire destroyed large parts of the world-famous Notre Dame Cathedral in central Paris, investigators have yet to reveal the specific cause of the blaze that burned the cathedral’s ancient wooden beams. They suspect it was an accident, not foul play.

Dramatic stories of those caught up in the fire at the 850-year-old site emerged.

Johann Vexo, 40, an organist for the church’s choir, was playing his instrument as part of a 6 o'clock Mass service for about 200 people. He was among the first to be evacuated from Notre Dame.

Ten to 15 minutes into the service, a smoke alarm went off.

“I am on duty every Monday. My first thought was ‘This is a mistake. It’s a problem with the alarm system.’ It never occurred to me that it was a real fire,” Vexo told USA TODAY.

Vexo and the worshipers calmly filed out halfway through a reading of the Gospels.

He went home, not even sure if there had been a fire.

Around 6:20, a church security officer responded to the alarm and reported seeing no smoke or fire.

Less than 30 minutes later, as the church was about to let people back in, the security team received a second alert. This time, fire had been spotted.

Myriam Chudzinksi, 27, a corporal in the Paris Fire Brigade, was among the first emergency service personnel to get to the cathedral. She arrived in less than 10 minutes, just before 7 p.m.

"I didn’t realize how intense the fire was going to be,” Chudzinksi said Wednesday during a news conference from the floor of a fire station close to the cathedral.

Chudzinksi saw large crowds of people gathered around the perimeter of the cathedral taking selfies and shooting video of the unfolding catastrophe.

"There was so much smoke I didn’t even see the spire fall. I only heard it. It was an extremely loud noise, and I really didn’t understand what it meant," she said. "The fire was so powerful and escalated so quickly, it seemed like we were constantly having to retreat away from it."

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By 7:30 p.m., more than 400 firefighters were on the scene, along with at least 30 firetrucks and even fire boats that arrived next to the cathedral along the River Seine.

About $1 billion in donations have been pledged for reconstruction efforts, and France will hold a competition among international architects to design a new spire for the Notre Dame Cathedral after the one atop the church collapsed.

Thursday, Bishop Patrick Chauvet proposed building a small, temporary church on the plaza outside the monument, so the faithful have a place of worship while the 12th-century structure ravaged by fire is closed for restoration.

The normally busy neighborhood around Notre Dame will be blocked to pedestrians and traffic until Monday.

Among the fire crew Monday night was Jean-Marc Fournier, 53, the chaplain of the Paris Fire Brigade, who salvaged precious items during the fire.

"The spire had already fallen. At any time, the nave could have given way," Fournier said at the same news conference with Chudzinksi.

"There were burning embers all over the floor, in front of the main altar and in the choral area. It actually felt like it was raining fire from the ceiling inside the cathedral. Inside, it was a very strange atmosphere, not a lot of smoke, and it was not excessively hot," he said.

Fournier, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who helped evacuate victims from an extremist attack at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris in 2015, was given two tasks that night: Find Notre Dame’s Blessed Sacrament, which is used during church services as the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and the Crown of Thorns, which Catholics believe was worn by Jesus at the Crucifixion.

"As I rushed around, I could see someone had already broken open display cases with the fake crown (used in some services and for tourists to look at), probably thinking this was all that needed to be done," he said.

Starting again: France to hold competition for redesign of Notre Dame's iconic spire

In fact, Fournier said, both items were held in a safe.

It took some time to find someone who knew where the key was kept.

"When we work together to do good, we get a real sense of pride," Fournier said, referring to the human chain that was formed to get the historical treasures to safety.

The items were evacuated to Paris' City Hall, a large Renaissance-style building across the River Seine from Notre Dame Cathedral.

"It’s quite ironic that a building originally built to be anti-clerical became a temporary refuge for all these religious symbols," Paris Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire told USA TODAY.

The Crown of Thorns spent Monday night in a room that usually houses weapons that belong to the mayor’s security team. The next day, it and other artifacts – from gargoyles to irreplaceable paintings and French King Louis IX’s tunic – were taken to the Louvre Museum for safekeeping.

"It was really moving to see these things arrive at City Hall because at about the same time, we had word that the cathedral’s structure was likely going to be saved. It was such a relief," Gregoire said.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Raining fire': Firsthand accounts from the Notre Dame Cathedral blaze