As hundreds of firefighters in ceremonial uniform marched through the gates of the French presidential palace to receive personal thanks from Emmanuel Macron for saving the structure of Notre Dame Cathedral, crowds gathered outside to cheer and clap.

Many of those applauding had watched horrified from Paris streets earlier this week as over 500 firefighters worked through the night to put out the fire and prevent an even worse disaster than the fallen spire and destroyed roof. Since then, there has been an outpouring of gratitude towards firefighters, with people taking chocolates and flowers to fire stations across the city, seeking to shake officers’ hands.

“The country and the entire world were watching us and you were exemplary,” a sombre-faced Emmanuel Macron told firefighters gathered at a closed ceremony inside the Élysée Palace.

Announcing they would all receive a gold medal for courage, Macron relived the night’s terror with them.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Macron addresses firefighters at the Élysée Palace. Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/AFP/Getty Images

“No one will forget the first minutes as France, stunned, watched the spire start to catch fire and collapse,” he said “No one knew if the two belfries would hold up, many thought we’d lose them. The cathedral could have collapsed and you could have lost officers. You took risks because your mission was well run.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Paris firefighters and security forces at the Élysée Palace. Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/AP

The president spoke as details began to emerge of the nine-hour operation inside and outside the cathedral as the firefighters battled what one of them described as “potentially the fire of the century, with the emotional and cultural weight of it all”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Prime minister Édouard Philippe, the president’s wife Brigitte Macron, Notre Dame rector Patrick Chauvet and city mayor Anne Hidalgo listen to the president. Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/AFP/Getty Images

The first teams were on the scene in minutes. One senior firefighter, Myriam, described how she and officers were in the canteen when their siren sounded. “As we arrived in our truck, we could see people with their phones filming, we realised there must be something to see.”

Six months ago, she had done a fire training exercise at the cathedral and knew the hidden staircases. Soon she had climbed dozens of metres and was up on a balcony. “The flames were spreading fast and we were fighting them. We heard a loud noise, we couldn’t see then, but it was the spire collapsing.”

Later they were forced to move out when large pieces of stone were falling and it was not safe. It was only at 4am, when they stopped and saw the people all around and later put on the TV back in the barracks, that they began to realise the scale of what it had meant.

Some who were present, including the fire service chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier, had also lived through other key moments in recent years, including a fatal ambush in 2008 on French soldiers in Afghanistan.

Fournier attended the scene of the 2015 terrorist attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo and evacuated survivors from the terror attack on a Paris kosher supermarket. He had rescued people from the 2015 gun attack at the Bataclan theatre, where he said he had seen “the reality of death”.

Macron also hailed people who had played more of a hidden role, such as the culture ministry staff who had carefully stored and inventoried saved artefacts and the Red Cross staff who had led locals away from danger and been on standby in case a neighbouring hospital needed to be evacuated. He praised Fire officers from outside Paris who had rushed in to provide specialist long ladders and trucks as well as boats to siphon water from the Seine to fight the fire.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People gather outside the city hall to honour the firefighters. Photograph: Benoît Tessier/Reuters

Crowds gathered in front of Paris city hall on Thursday evening for another homage to the fire services and to hear readings of Victor Hugo’s classic novel Notre-Dame de Paris – known in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame — which has become a bestseller since the fire.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rector of Notre Dame Patrick Chauvet speaks to the crowd outside the city hall. Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

As pledges continued to roll in from rich business leaders, the fund to rebuild the cathedral topped €850m (£735m) – amid some criticism over how it reflects the gap between the mega-rich and ordinary people.

“In one click, 200 million, 100 million. That shows the inequality which we regularly denounce in this country,” the head of the leftwing CGT trade union, Philippe Martinez, said.

Gilets jaunes anti-government demonstrators have said they will continue to protest in Paris this Saturday.

Sophie Tissier of the gilets jaunes movement said demonstrators would protest in “honour of Notre Dame” but also for tax justice and equality. “If we stop now, we’re in danger of losing momentum,” she told French TV.

Macron said that at a time when the state and public powers were being attacked, the fire officers were examples of how “the state has an extraordinary strength to mobilise”.

He also repeated his vow to rebuild Notre Dame in just five years, despite scepticism from some experts who warned of the intricate work and expertise needed. The government is to announce a training plan for skilled artisans, with a warning that France would need hundreds more stonemasons and carpenters.

For the toppled spire, the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, has said that an international contest of architects would determine one of three options: not replacing the spire, rebuilding it as it was or creating a wholly new structure.

It also emerged that about 200,000 bees based in hives at the top of the cathedral had survived. The beekeeper confirmed what he had seen from satellite images – the bees were continuing to go in and out of their hives.