Nantes cathedral 'catches' fire: Arson suspected as 400-year-old organ destroyed in blaze - UPDATES

Alice Tidey
euronews.com
Sat, 18 Jul 2020 17:24 UTC

Comment: They've done it again...

© Laetitia Notarianni/AP Photo

French police officers look at the Gothic St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral, in Nantes, damaged by a blaze on Saturday morning. July 18, 2020

More than 100 firefighters were deployed in the western French city of Nantes on Saturday morning to tackle a "violent blaze" at the cathedral.

"For the moment, the fire has been contained," General Laurent Ferlay, the head of the local fire service, told reporters at around 10:00 CEST.

An arson inquiry has been launched, the Nantes prosecutor said.

Footage released on social media earlier by the French Federation of Firefighters showed flames leaping inside the gothic monument as a large cloud of black smoke escaped to rise towards the sky.

Firefighters have called on people to stay away from the area.

Emergency services were alerted shortly before 07:45 CEST and some 104 firefighters were deployed to tackle the fire, Ferlay said.

The "violent blaze" erupted "by the organ located behind the rose window", Ferlay explained.

"The roof has not been affected", he went on, adding: "the scenario is not comparable to Notre Dame".

Comment: In terms of the damage done, perhaps, but otherwise it is very much part of the same story; the deliberate destruction of France's oldest and most famous churches.

This will be a relief for most French people still reeling from the devastating blaze 15 months earlier at Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris.

Contrary to the 850-year-old monument in the capital, which still had timber roof beams, the Cathedral of St. Peter and St Paul of Nantes had been renovated with concrete roof beams following a large fire in 1972 which had reduced the roof to ashes.

The renovation was only completed in 2013.

Firefighters are expected to remain on-site for the rest of the day and have begun to assess the damage.

Per Ferlay, "damage is concentrated on the great organ which seems to be completely destroyed". The platform on which it stood is also "unstable", he added.

The great organ has been in the cathedral since 1621. It originally had only 27 keys but subsequent restoration works increased the number to 74.

It had survived the French Revolution, WWII bombings and the devastating 1972 fire.

Authorities have launched an arson inquiry with Nantes prosecutor Pierre Sennes revealing that "three distinct fire points" had been found.

He stressed however that "there is no conclusion to be drawn now because we still have a lot of investigating to do which can bring new elements."

A fire expert from the technical and scientific police laboratory in Paris is to be dispatched to Nantes to help with the investigations.

Nantes Mayor Johanna Rolland praised the fire service for their reactivity and professionalism.

President Emmanuel Macron expressed his support to firefighters "who take great risk to save this gothic gem in the city of the Dukes".

Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Twitter that his thoughts are "with our firefighters courageously mobilised to contain the fire".

"To the people of Nantes, whose emotion I share, I want to express my solidarity", he also wrote.

Construction of the cathedral, which began in 1434, took more than 450 years. The gothic monument was listed in 1862 before it was even finished.

Comment: An eyewitness who lives near the cathedral told the LCI news outlet that he was woken up by "a very strange sound of bells" and he could see the fire from his home.

Also this week there was a stabbing at church in Virginia, US, and just a few days earlier another church in the US was vandalized with satanic and anarchist symbols.

Update 18 July 2020

Further reports and photos show that the fire indeed started in several places:

Images showing the charred interior of the 15th-century cathedral in Nantes, France, appear to point at three separate outbreaks of flames having damaged the Gothic gem on Saturday. Arson is being investigated.

The diocese of Nantes released images on Facebook in the wake of the blaze. It completely destroyed the grand organ at the Cathedral of St. Pierre and St. Paul, blew out the stained glassed windows at the front of the building, and consumed a valuable 19th-century painting that had been sent from Rome.

Locals quickly spotted that, judging by the photos, there had been two separate fires on the ground floor, located meters away from each other. The third apparently broke out on the upper level.

© Facebook / Diocese of Nantes

© Facebook / Diocese of Nantes

© Facebook / Diocese of Nantes

© Facebook / Diocese of Nantes

Nantes Prosecutor Pierre Sennes confirmed there had been three fire hotspots in the building and announced that "an arson investigation has been opened."

Update 19 July 2020

A 39-year-old Rwandan man, who worked for the diocese as a volunteer, is a suspect, according to the Europe1 news outlet - and he has been taken into custody.

Breitbart adds:

The 39-year-old migrant detained following the blaze, according to French reports, worked for the diocese, and was angry over difficulties he had been having with his expired visa — although the authorities have cautioned against leaping to conclusions about his involvement in the fire.

Prosecutors said it would be "premature and hasty" to brand the migrant, who was apparently responsible for locking the cathedral up the day before the fire, as an arsonist.

It appears he was taken into custody because there are inconsistencies in his timetable — but Nantes public prosecutor Pierre Sennès has stressed that this is "normal procedure" and that, so far, the authorities are not working under the assumption that he started the blaze.

Jean-Charles Nowak, a clerk at the cathedral, has defended the unnamed migrant, saying he "adores" the building.

"I don't believe for a second that he could have set the cathedral on fire," Nowak said.

It sounds like they're dangling this man as a fall-guy, for now, in order to gaslight the population into privately thinking "I knew it had to be a foreigner," while, of course, it probably wasn't him - though he may have unwittingly allowed the actual perpetrators to sneak in and do their wicked deed.