Fire at Notre-Dame de Paris recalls Mission Santa Clara Blaze

This 1926 photo of Mission Santa Clara burning was taken on October 25, 1926, when fire destroyed the 101 year old building. It may be used only with the permission of the 

Department of Archives & Special Collections, Santa Clara University.

Historic buildings, like Notre-Dame de Paris and Mission Santa Clara, are often subject to fire because they were built long before the use of electricity. In older times, candles often started the fires in old buildings. In the twentieth century, primitive wiring, retrofitted on to these historic buildings is often to blame.

This may be what happened to Notre-Dame de Paris this April. And it was faulty wiring that was suspect in the fire that burned Mission Santa Clara in 1926. By then, the mission was a parish church and a university chapel. But its loss was devastating to history nevertheless. Here's more on what happened that day in my column for the Los Altos Town Crier:
CLICK TO READ ABOUT THE MISSION SANTA CLARA FIRE

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