DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - Bob Weaver wanted to take his two teenage daughters to Paris for Spring Break.
The Chicago resident and his girls flew all night, landed at France's Charles De Gaulle Airport on Monday and decided to stop by Notre Dame Cathedral on their way to the hotel. It is a choice Weaver will remember for the rest of his life.
Weaver, who is the brother-in-law of KRLD Chief Meteorologist Dan Brounoff, said, "I got inside the cathedral and the alarms started going off. I looked at the (security guard), because he was telling us we had to leave. My French is not good, but the security guard at the front kept saying 'S'il vous plait, s'il vous plait.' You know, 'please.' Then he looked at us again, and said 'Fire.'"
Weaver said he and his daughters stayed in the vicinity of the cathedral for 40-45 minutes before they started hearing sirens. As firefighters started pouring into the location, the bystanders were ordered to clear the scene and move back.
He said it is stunning to think he was one of the last visitors inside the cathedral when it started burning. "As we were leaving, we heard people in tears around us because it's so horrific, and such a sad thing. This is hundreds and hundreds of years old," Weaver said.
Construction on the original Notre Dame Cathedral started in 1163.
