Historic church in Canada severely damaged in fire
Correction Appended:
A historic Catholic church in Quebec, Canada, has suffered severe damage due to a fire. One of the 110 churches to have been damaged in a fire or vandalized since 2021, the Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Allégresses in the city of Trois-Rivières went up in flames, leading to significant structural damage, including the collapse of one of its bell towers, according to reports.
The fire was reported by local authorities and emergency crews were dispatched to the Catholic church building on Thursday, True North reported.
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According to municipal officials and the fire department, the church, which dates back to 1914, was empty at the time, preventing any injuries. The cause of the fire has not been determined, and officials have refrained from speculating on its origin.
Local media outlets and eyewitnesses reported seeing flames in a container near the church prior to the spread of the fire. The Trois-Rivières fire department mobilized quickly, with additional support from nearby Bécancour, deploying ladder trucks to combat the blaze.
The church sustained significant damage, rendering the building’s future uncertain.
Georges Mouradian, a residential developer who recently purchased the church for a revitalization project, was on-site and shared details with La Presse. Mouradian said he planned to convert the church into 40 to 50 residential units, a project that was to advance to its next phase the day after the fire. He added that all construction had now been paused pending a thorough investigation.
Mouradian further revealed to La Nouvelliste that the church property was uninsured, as insuring such properties is challenging. The immediate vicinity, including neighboring businesses, was evacuated by police, and 11 Franciscans residing adjacent to the church were also moved to safety with assistance from the Red Cross.
Since 2021, more than 110 churches have experienced fire or vandalism, wrote Visegrád 24, a popular news handle in Canada, on X.
It was in 2021 that the alleged unmarked graves at an Indian residential school in Kamloops, B.C. were purportedly discovered. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his former secretary Gerald Butts remarked on the anger stemming from Canada’s historical treatment of indigenous populations, relating to the church burnings.
However, investigations in Canada have found no evidence of mass graves at 14 sites previously thought to possibly contain the remains of Indigenous children, it was revealed last year.
In May 2021, reports emerged of ground-penetrating radar technology discovering unmarked graves of hundreds of indigenous children at former Catholic-run residential schools in Canada that made international headlines and led to widespread vandalism and burning of churches after Trudeau demanded an apology from Pope Francis.
A series of excavations at the 14 locations at the Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Catholic Church near the Pine Creek Residential School found no human remains.
While the initial claims of potential remains drew widespread media coverage, Archbishop Richard Gagnon of the Diocese of Winnipeg, Manitoba, told EWTN at the time that the media interest in the investigation seemed to have waned once it became apparent that no remains were discovered.
“When we began the process of this excavation, we began with an early morning pipe ceremony led by the indigenous community there. There was a lot of national attention paid to that,” he said. “But at the end of the four weeks of excavation, the national news was not quite as prevalent. Some of the networks reported the results, and others didn’t play it up very big at all. So it began with much more national notice than the way it ended.”
“What you have had over the past couple of years is the use of ground-penetrating radar uncovering unmarked graves,” he continued. “There [are] no mass graves. ... It is a matter of unmarked graves in communities where there were residential schools. In this particular case in Manitoba where this excavation occurred, I’m not aware of any comment from the federal government about this particular case.”
Correction: This article has been updated to state that at least 110 churches have been damaged in a fire or vandalized since 2021, not 2001.
