Bees that live in Notre Dame Roof surprisingly survived the raging fire and gave relief to beekeepers as they assumed them dead. There were about 180,000 bees that live on the roof and who survived the fire that ravaged the cathedrals’ ancient wooden roof. These bees lived in hives on Notre Dame’s roof since 2013 as a segment of a Paris wide struggle to help prevent bee die off.
Nicolas Geant, One of the Notre beekeeper, told press yesterday that ‘it’s a big day and I am so relieved when I saw satellite photos that revealed that three hives did not burn.’ He added that ‘instead of killing them the cO2 that came emerged from smoke makes them drunk and puts them to sleep. ‘There were in total three beehives located on the first floor on the roof just beneath the rose window, and each hive has about 60000 bees in it.
Nicolas Geant also told media that the smoke and fire did not touch the hives because they are almost 98 feet, i.e. 30 meters below a roof where the fire spread. However the hives are safe, he still requires to inspect the site properly. He said that bees do not have lungs and so they cannot die from smoke gasp, but they could die from extreme heat.
Also, European bees do not leave their hives when in danger, in its place they gorge themselves on honey and protect their bees which is the best part about them. They could have died if the wax protecting the hives started melting.
However, Nicolas Geant could not confirm anything yet that all bees are alive, but he is much confident that hives are safe and have been noted buzzing in and out. He said ‘it’s a miracle as flames do not touch them at all.’
The leading cause of the Notre Dame cathedral fire was probably an electrical short circuit which took down the cathedral’s spire along with considerable part of its roof. After a fire broke out for a few days, Nicolas Geant was worried about the life of bees. He felt relaxed when the French urban beekeeping company Be epic Apiculture posted an image in Instagram that confirmed that bees were perfectly fine.
However the fire at Notre Dame brought much destruction to one of the Paris’s admired landmarks, but Geant overjoyed that bees are still alive. The Notre Dame hives are a segment of a Paris wide attempt to increase the reducing numbers of bees. These bees have been placed on other Paris buildings too counting the Palais Garnier opera house.
