Rebuilding Notre Dame will be long, fraught and expensive

A hole is seen in the dome inside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, Tuesday, April 16, 2019. Firefighters declared success Tuesday in a more than 12-hour battle to extinguish an inferno engulfing Paris' iconic Notre Dame cathedral that claimed its spire and roof, but spared its bell towers and the purported Crown of Christ. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)

A hole is seen in the dome inside the damaged Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, Tuesday, April 16, 2019. Firefighters declared success Tuesday in a more than 12-hour battle to extinguish an inferno engulfing Paris' iconic Notre Dame cathedral that claimed its spire and roof, but spared its bell towers and the purported Crown of Christ. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)

LONDON – Notre Dame in Paris is not the first great cathedral to suffer a devastating fire, and it probably won't be the last. In a sense, that is good news.

A global army of experts and craftspeople can be called on for the long, complex process of restoring the gutted medieval landmark.

One big decision will be whether to preserve the 850-year-old cathedral just as it was before the fire, or to take a more creative approach.

Getting materials may also be a challenge. The cathedral roof was made from oak beams cut from centuries-old trees. There may be no country in Europe with big enough trees today.

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