An American eyewitness broke down in tears, saying she was “heartbroken” as the famed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burned Monday.
“When I looked down the street, I saw the sky was filled with multi-colored plumes of smoke and as an artist, all I could imagine was that the colors and the smoke were so vibrant it had to be from... pigments in the paintings inside and I was heartbroken to my core,” Liz Boeder, an American artist living in Paris, told “Shepard Smith Reporting.”
The peak of the church, one of the world's most famous tourist attractions, is undergoing a $6.8 million renovation project. It's unclear if the fire is related to the construction, although the fire brigade has confirmed that was a possibility.
"When the spire fell… I felt as though a part of my, all my insides just fell apart,” Boeder said.
SHOCKING PHOTOS: NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL CATCHES FIRE
Boeder also talked about the cathedral’s beauty and what it represented to humanity.
“It was just a place where people went to go try to find meaning in their lives, to try to have the spiritual connection to that which is, you know, the highest aspirations of humanity,” Boeder told Smith as she became increasingly emotional.
“It was just a place of beauty. That's all it was. It wasn't a political place. It wasn't, you know. It didn't deserve that.”
Fox News' Jennifer Earl contributed to this report.