It's a nice little bit of math...but the underlying problem is one of real-world operational competence, not clever 2-dimensional geometry.
When Notre Dame caught fire, the fire alarm worked fine...but it was more than half an hour between that alarm sounding - internally - and the on-duty staff figuring out the actual location of the fire, verifying it, and calling the fire brigade. Add in 10 minutes for the fire brigade to arrive, 300 steps to climb up to the attic where the fire was...yeah.
bell-cot•3h ago
When Notre Dame caught fire, the fire alarm worked fine...but it was more than half an hour between that alarm sounding - internally - and the on-duty staff figuring out the actual location of the fire, verifying it, and calling the fire brigade. Add in 10 minutes for the fire brigade to arrive, 300 steps to climb up to the attic where the fire was...yeah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_fire#Fire
(The article mentions that the museum's alarms sounded as they should.)