Notre Dame de Grâce, a Catholic church in southern France, was the victim of arson on Easter Sunday.
According to Breitbart, officials say that it appears someone set the fire in a confessional booth:
Police have confirmed that a fire in the French church of Notre-Dame de Grâce on Easter Sunday appears to have been intentionally set, making it the latest in a string of desecrations of Christian churches in the country.
The fire was started in a large, wooden confessional around 4:30pm and proceeded to consume a dais in the presbytery of the eighteenth-century church located in the southern French town of Eyguières, near Provence.
“Flames several meters high were coming out of the church,” said the mayor of Eyguières, Henri Pons, before a team of 30 firefighters with six vehicles arrived and managed to contain the blaze.
The church was apparently empty, but a man who lives across the street saw the fire and risked his life to put it out:
A man who lives in front of the church saw the flames emerging from a stained-glass window, the mayor said. He “used fire extinguishers from the village movie theater and courageously entered the church while waiting for firefighters to arrive.”
“If this brave citizen, a former top sportsman, had not intervened, the church would probably have burned to the ground,” the mayor reported. “It was Easter Sunday and there was almost nobody in the village.”
The local hero, a judo champion by the name of Joel Jouve, said afterward that the air in the church was “unbreathable” and there was very little light when he entered, but he was able to find two holy water fonts, which he emptied onto the fire.
“I shouted for someone to find me fire extinguishers and I used them on the fire,” he said, adding he was just happy to have “saved something.”
Just to reiterate, the mayor said if it weren’t for this man the church would have likely burned to the ground. That’s why he’s a hero.
Here’s a photo I found of the inside of the church (pre-fire):
And one of the outside:
