Notre Dame restoration kicking off in France

Officials are planning to reopen Notre Dame to the public in 2024.

PARIS -- After 2 1/2 years of cleaning and consolidating -- and a pandemic that halted French workers for a few months -- the restoration phase of the Notre Dame cathedral is set to kick off this winter.

The night of April 15, 2019, a massive fire tore through the roof of world famous cathedral in Paris, collapsing the spire. The first block of wood to be used in the new spire -- at the very base of a structure that should rise 255 feet above ground -- was produced in a lumbermill in the western France town of Craon on Thursday.

Rebuilding Notre Dame is a colossal national project. Mickael Renaud, owner of a lumbermill called The Giants, told ABC News, he was proud to play a part, adding that his lumber mill had to expand storage capacity simply to house the huge blocks of wood required.

French President Emmanuel Macron promised in July 2020 that everything lost in the fire would be rebuilt in its original form -- over 1,000 centennial trees were carefully selected from French forests and sent to sawmills across the country.