NOTRE Dame's devastating fire brought back vivid memories of the blaze at York Minster nearly 35 years ago, the cathedral's master mason has revealed.

John David has worked at the Minster since 1980. He witnessed the major fire that caused severe damage at the cathedral on July 9, 1984 and was heavily involved in the restoration of the building afterwards, which took four years.

He believes restoring Notre Dame is a "big challenge," but added: "I'm sure it's going to be doable."

Speaking about the catastrophic fire on Monday, he said: "It did bring back memories. I was very concerned the fire would spread up into the towers - it did reach the north west tower. But fortunately they were able to put the fire out up there. They had a hugely difficult job because there's a stone vault inside. They can't collapse the roof like they did here so they had to fight the fire at a high level."

Recalling the night the fire broke out at the Minster, John said: "I was woken by a neighbour at two in the morning, who said there was a fire on the south transept.

"We looked at it initially and we thought it's quite small and the fire service were coming. But the flames spread rapidly.

"At that point I realised perhaps I should be doing something else. So I went round the back into the Minster and then we were worried about the whole building so anything that we could move of any value inside the building we were taking out of the building and putting it in one of the properties at the back of the Minster.

"We were doing this for about an hour and a half. The vaulting of the roof was starting to fall on the floor of the south transept.

"There were lots of huge bangs and thumps. What it was, the firemen were trying to collapse the roof so it didn't spread up into the central tower." He said at that point the Minster was full of smoke and everyone was asked to leave the building.

"We came outside and saw the last of the roof collapse and all the rafters, it was like a domino effect all knocking over and a big cloud of orange smoke," he added.

"At about 8am we were allowed back in to see the devastation."

Following the fire, John said there was a huge cleaning operation that lasted for months.

He said: "From a craftsmen's point of view we just wanted to get on with repairing it.

"We never doubted whether we could do it or not and I hope people in France feel the same way."

He said repairing the Minster was "quite a challenge" and thinks the work involved was a "bit smaller" compared to the challenges they face restoring Notre Dame.

John added: "Here we were left with an open space into the sky. There they have got a stone vault to repair.

"They are not going to be short of money, the craftsmanship does exist and can be done, I just hope they are able to persuade the powers that be that it should be put back in the same way as it was built, not exactly the same but in a traditional style of the building.

"I know how people felt in York that day and I felt very much for Parisians and visitors to Paris yesterday (April 15).

"The firemen are there trying to control the fire but people feel so helpless. All they can do is look and dread what might happen to such an iconic building."