≡ Menu

The Death by Fire of Notre Dame in Paris (1163 – 2019) [UPDATED]

“If we believed in omens….”Notre Dame fire: Smoke billows out of historic cathedral in Paris

Who Burned Down Notre Dame? 
Some people did something.
According to the French police, 875 of France’s 42,258 churches were vandalized in 2018. And who is being blamed? “Militant Secularism.” The Morning Rant:

“If we believed in omens….”

UPDATE: Twelve French Churches Attacked, Vandalized in One Week

The recent spate of church profanations has puzzled both police and ecclesiastical leaders, who have mostly remained silent as the violations have spread up and down France.

Last Sunday, marauders set fire to the church of Saint-Sulpice” one of Paris’ largest and most important churches” shortly after the twelve-o’clock Mass.

Police have concluded that the fire was the result of arson and are now looking for possible suspects. The restoration of the church from the damage caused by the fire will reportedly cost several hundred million euros.

In Nimes (department of the Gard), near the border with Spain, the church of Notre-Dame des Enfants was desecrated in a particularly odious way, with vandals painting a cross with human excrement, looting the main altar and the tabernacle, and stealing the consecrated hosts, which were discovered later among piles of garbage.

Likewise, the church of Notre-Dame in Dijon, in the east of the country, suffered the sacking of the high altar and the hosts were also taken from the tabernacle, scattered on the ground, and trampled.

In Lavaur, in the southern department of the Tarn, the village church was assaulted by young men, who twisted one arm of a representation of the crucified Christ to make it appear that he was making an obscene gesture.

In the peripheries of Paris, in the department of Yvelines, several churches have suffered profanations of varying importance, in Maisons-Laffitte and in Houilles.

Although commentators have been reluctant to attach a particular religious or cultural origin to the profanations, they all share an evident anti-Christian character.

In recent months, anti-Semitic gangs have desecrated Jewish cemeteries, signing their actions with swastikas. In the case of the desecration of Catholic churches, the vandalism has spoken for itself: ridicule of the figure of Christ on the cross and desecration of major altars.

The Catholic hierarchy has kept silent about the episodes, limited themselves to highlighting that anti-Christian threat and expressing hope that politicians and police will get to the bottom of the crimes.

Reports indicate that 80 percent of the desecration of places of worship in France concerns Christian churches and in the year 2018 this meant the profanation of an average of two Christian churches per day in France, even though these actions rarely make the headlines.

In 2018, the Ministry of the Interior recorded 541 anti-Semitic acts, 100 anti-Muslim acts, and 1063 anti-Christian acts.

UPDATE FROM THE RECENT PAST: TWO YEARS AGO IN 2016:  Cell of French women guided by Isis behind failed Notre Dame attack   The Guardian

The group’s first attempted attack involved parking a Peugeot 607 car packed with gas cylinders near the cathedral in the heart of Paris and trying to blow it up. The car was also found to have contained diesel canisters and a barely-smoked cigarette had been thrown into the car near a canister with traces of hydrocarbons. Molins said the perpetrators had clearly tried to blow the car up and if they had succeeded it would have led to the explosion of the whole vehicle.

UPDATE ON OMENS: No Words: In Paris, as Notre Dame burned | City Journal

Everyone murmured what you’d expect them to murmur. “It’s not just our cathedral, it’s the world’s.” “It’s our heritage.” “Eight hundred years.” “It’s a friend.” “It’s unspeakable.” “There are no words for it.”

There are no words for it. I said to my father that the cathedral is always the metaphor; we compare things to cathedrals; what do you say when the cathedral itself burns before your eyes?

“It’s a bad omen.”

French Churches Vandalized in 2018:

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Rick April 15, 2019, 11:27 AM

    I see the roof has now collapsed and firefighters have given up efforts to save it. This is a loss to the entire world.

  • JoanOfArgghh! April 15, 2019, 11:38 AM

    It was a poured out offering for 850 years. I weep for the beauty that is being consumed by the flames, but the flowers of the field and the mercies of the Lord are new every morning. Too long we have relied on a beautiful past while building a soulless, ugly future full of bland utility and practicality. I weep for the extravagance of inspired art, in reflection of eternal Glory, that we have failed to replace in our modern sanctuaries and cities.

  • Old Fert April 15, 2019, 11:40 AM

    Holy Smoke!

  • Julie April 15, 2019, 11:42 AM

    Horrible. Absolutely horrible. I always thought most of those old cathedrals were made of stone, brick, mortar and concrete; who ever would have imagined the spire could be immolated so completely?

  • Brother John April 15, 2019, 11:57 AM

    @Old Fert
    > Holy Smoke!

    As Bea Arthur used to say … God’ll get you for that.

  • Abelard Lindsey April 15, 2019, 11:58 AM

    Julie,

    There is a lot of woodwork in a gothic cathedral. Its not just the pews, but decorative fixtures up and along the walls and especially around the organ pipes.

  • Julie April 15, 2019, 12:18 PM

    Thank you – of course, there would have to be.

    Joan, indeed.

  • Marica April 15, 2019, 12:23 PM

    Yes, Joan. We weep.

  • Casey Klahn April 15, 2019, 12:27 PM

    Tearfully watching. I love the Gothic era and when solid, historical evidence of it destroyed we have lost a great deal. Easter week!

    Shaking my head.

  • ghostsniper April 15, 2019, 1:12 PM

    Some things should be off limits, always. Murder, for example. And the wrecking of a large chunk of world history, art, and beauty. This is huge.

    It is called dunnage. The immense timber support structures that were created to hold stones and concrete while it set. Much of the designs in these building is such that there was no way to remove the dunnage and scaffolding after the fact, so it was buried within by false ceilings and other things. That stuff is still in there, and now it burns. The stones will become heat tempered and unstable, the concrete even more so and may crumble. The damage and loss is inestimable.

  • theirritablearchitect April 15, 2019, 1:16 PM

    The roof structure of all Gothic cathedrals is very similar; Slate on wood battens over heavy timbers assembled with mortise and tenon joinery into trusses, sitting atop the load-bearing masonry below.

    Quite a lot of consumable material for a fire.

    Extremely sad to see this, especially here, as Notre Dame is considered the most perfect example of the High Gothic, by most any experts’ standards.

  • Bismarck April 15, 2019, 1:24 PM
  • John Venlet April 15, 2019, 1:24 PM

    Even before your update, with the accompanying notes in regards to the multiple number of churches being vandalized in France, I was of the mind that the Notre Dame fire was a nefarious action.

    I do not think, nor necessarily believe, the Notre Dame fire is an omen, but, I do think that if information is forthcoming which proves arsonists as the cause of the fire, in conjunction with the many other church desecrations which have already occurred, ominous events may transpire.

  • tim April 15, 2019, 1:25 PM

    Just a coincidence I’m sure –

    “On Friday Islamic terrorists Inez Madani was jailed for eight years for her attempted car bombing outside of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/04/breaking-on-friday-female-jihadi-jailed-over-attempted-car-bombing-outside-notre-dame-cathedral/

  • PA Cat April 15, 2019, 1:36 PM

    “The roof structure of all Gothic cathedrals is very similar; Slate on wood battens over heavy timbers assembled with mortise and tenon joinery into trusses, sitting atop the load-bearing masonry below.
    Quite a lot of consumable material for a fire.”

    That quantity of wood was the reason why Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was gutted during the Great Fire of 1666. Thankfully the present St. Paul’s survived the Blitz of 1940-41 even though it suffered two direct hits from German bombers.

    I find myself hoping that security as well as fire prevention has been stepped up around St. Peter’s in Rome as well as St. Paul’s.

  • Anon April 15, 2019, 1:59 PM

    How many posts/comments have we all seen foretelling Europe’s demise? Burn the churches! This is just the beginning. I will say again the only hope France has or any country in Europe has is to begin today a massive effort to find and deport all Muslims. They are at war with the West and the West is in denial. Sure, not every Muslim wants to kill or enslave all Westerners but almost without exception they will support those Muslims who do want to kill or enslave us all. They have to, that is the basis of their religion. Of course the political leaders won’t do any such thing as deport all the potential trouble makers and just as certainly this “war” will escalate and at some point even the stupidest most dense politician and citizen will figure it out. The only question is when and will it be in time? Meanwhile the numbers of Islam’s army grows in the cities and even in the congress of the West. This is our next war, Europe’s next war and all the leaders are fiddling.

  • Nori April 15, 2019, 2:05 PM

    The pictures rend your heart. Ordinary Parisians on their knees,praying.
    Not being a firefighter,I wonder why no attempt has been made to douse it from the air? Were they afraid the weight of the water would further the collapse?

    No way in hell is this a “renovation” accident. Notre Dame has long been a juicy target to the vibrants in the no-go zones of Paris. And this is Holy Week for Catholics. There will be celebrations galore in those zones tonight.

  • Ex-PraliteMonk April 15, 2019, 2:22 PM

    Workers + blowtorches + 800 year old oak timbers = tragedy. A conspiracy theories isn’t necessary.

  • Marica April 15, 2019, 2:29 PM

    Nori– Instapundit has an update right under the Lileks tweet linking to a thread written by someone who knows fires. First thing he addresses is your question.

  • JoanOfArgghh! April 15, 2019, 3:39 PM

    Go to twitter and type in Ave Maria.
    Even my non-Catholic heart was moved, my eyes filled with tears.

  • Terribletroy April 15, 2019, 3:44 PM

    “workers + blowtorches + 800 year old oak timbers = tragedy.” Certainly, in a world where having a fire watch for hot work isn’t a standard within any HVT environment.

  • Jack April 15, 2019, 4:03 PM

    With the French wrapping their arms around the murderous muslim hordes that have invaded the nation I’ll be surprised if the entirety of Paris isn’t burned or bombed into the kind of devastation that would rival an apocalypse. Nothing I can do about it but if taking muslims out was sanctioned I’d likely haul myself out to the ammo store and help supply the men and women doing that dirty work with all the ammo they could ever need to wrap up the job.

    On another potentially sad note, has anyone heard anything of the welfare of Quasimodo?

  • bob sykes April 15, 2019, 4:07 PM

    If this is not the work of Muslims, I will be astonished.

  • Nori April 15, 2019, 5:12 PM

    Thanks, Marica,good thread by fireman Gregg Favre. He echoes what Ghost and others said above. Heavy old timbers,no firebreaks,large open spaces,etc. Basically,in old wooden churches,everything burns.
    They chose not to use airpower for fear of collapsing it even quicker and washing remnants into the Seine.
    Conspiracy Theory,seriously? The fire was 1st noticed at 5:30 pm Paris time. The cathedral was closed,visitors had mostly left. What construction crew starts work at dusk in the attic of a centuries-old structure made of wood at nightfall?
    Since the Charlie Hebdo massacre,church & synagogue burnings and desecrations have seen a huge and unreported uptick in all of France. This simply did not happen prior to the idiot elites of France importing Islamic Africa to their homeland. They’ve turned the once pristine streets of Paris into, well, San Francisco.
    In the words of that profound brainbox from MN,Rep.Omar “Some people did something,somewhere.”
    Or something.

  • Rob De Witt April 15, 2019, 5:21 PM

    Remind me again why Mecca and Medina are not steaming piles of glass in the desert. Of course that’s an angry and emotional response to what should be evident to anybody with an IQ surpassing that of a newt.

    In the last few weeks churches and synagogues all over France have been defiled and vandalized. Two years ago a French priest was murdered by a Moslem “immigrant” while saying Mass. Last week a Moslem threw a three-year-old blond boy off a balcony at the Mall of America in Minnesota. Eighteen years ago almost 3,000 innocent people were murdered by Moslems who highjacked passenger jets.

    And yet even in this company there are people trying to excuse the wanton destruction of one of Christendom’s most visible symbols – during Holy Week – as “Maybe it was an accident.”

    Sweet Jesus, people.

  • ambiguousfrog April 15, 2019, 5:51 PM

    It’ll be a mosque in a couple of years. I was under the impression no one goes to church anymore. Isn’t this the country were Muslims are slaughtering clergy during mass? My first thought was Macron will some how use it to tamp down on dissent against the yellow vests. “Never let a crisis go to waste…”

  • Anonymous April 15, 2019, 6:04 PM

    Allah Akbar

  • Casey Klahn April 15, 2019, 7:19 PM

    My reasoned mind wants the info and such facts as can be obtained before I pass judgement on what has happened. In the meanwhile, we are all reminded instantly, deeply and in uncertain terms that western churches are a target.

    Of course the security was raised in Cologne, Assisi, Rome and (I hope) London.

  • Casey Klahn April 15, 2019, 7:21 PM

    …”no uncertain terms.” Sorry.

  • jwm April 15, 2019, 7:24 PM

    September 11 did not awaken all of America, but It was a vision and a calling to those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Unfortunately many did not awaken, and now continue to settle deeper and deeper into the smug, semi-consciousness delusions of “woke” instead.
    Will the burning of Notre Dame awaken France? The West?
    If not, then what will?

    JWM

  • Tom Hyland April 15, 2019, 8:32 PM

    I appreciate the thoughts Stefan Molyneux delivered today regarding Notre Dame and the fate of western civilization.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlaxZtwUpVc&frags=pl%2Cwn

  • Kinch April 15, 2019, 8:35 PM

    Those Cheese-eating Snatch Sniffers may not have the honour to have been born Saxon, but they WILL learn to hate. Sadly a bit late for ND. If there isn’t an infantry battalion ringing Sainte-Chapelle by now, Macron deserves (yet more) to hang.

  • Patvann April 15, 2019, 8:37 PM

    The fire is out, and thankfully the damage is repairable.
    For a 360deg view in her full glory:

    https://www.facebook.com/360visio/photos/rpp.169115766563971/1408220912653444/?type=3&theater

  • rented mule April 15, 2019, 8:46 PM

    2015 my wife & I were able to attend a sunday service at Notre Dame, we are diminished.
    We believe this is likely no accident. Vive la France.

  • Minimalmed April 16, 2019, 2:42 AM

    Goodness, we Christians keep turning our cheeks so much, I believe a couple of cases of Chapstick are in order. It’s time to put on the armor…..

  • Jaynie April 16, 2019, 5:00 AM

    Harsh, so harsh. Notre Dame Cathedral as an icon of Western Civilization and, of course, an icon of the city of Paris is burnt. I appreciate Joan of Arrgh comment about past v future. Ancient hands toiling blood, sweat, and tears in building this icon evoke a memory of civilization in ascent.

    Modern day iconoclasts do naught but destroy.

    So, maybe an accident by a maintenance crew. Not of jihad. Okay, maybe. However, my thoughts tarry upon questions. One question to be specific. Could not both things be true? Could it be nothing more than an accident with a fire breathing tool and could that workman, the guy wielding that fiery tool, not also have been of a persuasion that loathes Western Civilization?

    In the insanity of the present day I get these oddball thoughts.

  • Chris Joseph April 16, 2019, 5:31 AM

    The devil is running wild in our world. There is no other explanation.

  • Jeff Brokaw April 16, 2019, 5:33 AM

    I’ll wait for more evidence to roll in but whatever the cause, that story about all the churches being vandalized obviously indicates a serious issue that must not be ignored or forgotten.

    The trend is not positive … tick, tock … and SO many people I know ignore Europe as a fairly obvious canary in a coal mine and tell themselves it can never, and will never, happen here.

  • Ten April 16, 2019, 6:06 AM

    The fire is out, and thankfully the damage is repairable.

    It is, the assault on culture, history, and man’s essential need to ascend notwithstanding. While this is an almost unfathomable loss, barring some political malice it will be rebuilt and it shall carry the scars proudly. I’ll point us to https://twitter.com/wrathofgnon for a far broader, far more historical perspective on man’s higher strivings in stone, architecture, and principle. Our host is familiar with this essential resource.

    I hope against hope that shriekers will find a way to preempt the usual damnation and paranoia such things seem to inculcate, because without direct evidence to the contrary this was a construction accident. They happen (this is construction, after all) and while assaults on the West are indeed all over the French landscape, Europe’s, and all of advanced civilization, nothing is served by exercising one’s lesser emotions. We don’t know what we don’t know and there’s nothing to be gained proudly proclaiming one’s idling indignation. Have we all donated to the rebuilding fund?

    But they will rebuild, and even as culture and civilization undergo whatever assaults they invariably shall, hopefully even France will take this as a new charge, for a time, to set its shoulders and be itself again. After all, it produced Notre Dame.

  • tim April 16, 2019, 6:19 AM

    34,870 terror Islamic attacks since 9/11…if you ain’t awake now you never will be. Get your prayer rug and put your women in burkas.

    https://thereligionofpeace.com/

  • Larry Geiger April 16, 2019, 6:51 AM

    “Ex-PraliteMonk April 15, 2019, 2:22 PM
    Workers + blowtorches + 800 year old oak timbers = tragedy. A conspiracy theories isn’t necessary.”

    I know nothing factual of the fire except that there was a lot of scaffolding around. I also know that welders are responsible for many, many fires. Blowtorches? I don’t know anything about that. Heating tar to seal things? I see the reasons for conspiracy ideas and I don’t deny them, but in this case, early on, I would lean towards a construction accident. No scaffolding and then I would surely have exactly the opposite opinion. IMHO. YMMV.

  • Leo M. Walker April 16, 2019, 7:16 AM

    Psalm 127
    A song of ascents. Of Solomon.
    1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
    the builders labor in vain.
    Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the guards stand watch in vain.
    2 In vain you rise early
    and stay up late,
    toiling for food to eat—
    for he grants sleep to[a] those he loves.

    3 Children are a heritage from the Lord,
    offspring a reward from him.
    4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
    are children born in one’s youth.
    5 Blessed is the man
    whose quiver is full of them.
    They will not be put to shame
    when they contend with their opponents in court.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvU89au9rVY

  • Casey Klahn April 16, 2019, 7:26 AM

    It is not wrong to suspect terror, in fact it is a necessity. It is also a proper form of logic.

    As a hunter and before that, as a soldier, I applied inductive reasoning to problems. I never fought in combat, so my soldier’s intuition was never proven. But, as a hunter I proved again and again that inductive reasoning works. A good hunter knows where the deer or particular game are when he goes afield. He knows it based on broad observation and tested theories. This is how deer act, this is their common behavior at said hour, these are the deviations, etc.

    A FUKton of church desecrations, including arsons, in France. 2 foiled major plots on the cathedral, that I know of. Open threats to same. I hate to say it, but past lies by the governments of the West regarding terror activities (why they do this, I don’t know, but they do). These are the type of evidence that a crime detective uses to construct a theory.

    A liberal and generous attitude keeps one from declaring it was terror, but logic is not wrong to go there at this stage. Another thing: they don’t know what started the fire, but they do rule out terror? Tell me the logic on that one. )Jeopardy theme plays…da da da duh, dah dah duuuuuh).

    Another fact is the opportunities for fire exist on a construction job, but the safeguards in France are anal at trying to prevent them. Now run the percentages.

    Don’t let the broader world screw up your thinking. Sometimes your intuition is better.

    Stay safe.

  • Ten April 16, 2019, 7:47 AM

    It is not wrong to suspect terror, in fact it is a necessity. It is also a proper form of logic.

    As a hunter and before that, as a soldier, I applied inductive reasoning to problems.

    Translated: On general trajectory and principle, suspect the secondary explanation because it’s logical and did I mention I’m a special expert. No, this is decidedly not a proper form of logic; it is a turn of speculation. A gut instinct at best and a hopeful whim at worst. I’m afraid logic doesn’t do that.

    It’s too much of a stretch, and since it borders on fallacy it doesn’t illuminate the situation any more than it was ten minutes ago. While it may very well turn out that foul play was involved – and theoretical recompense will ring from the halls of ill-considered opinion and will unquestionably range to exterminating entire nations – speculation always warrants proof if it’s to cease being speculation.

    Occam’s Razor points no less to the commonplace accident then to some fulfillment of the ostensible right’s political phantoms. That’s logical, Klahn. Nobody’s stepped forward in a characteristic fit of terrorism to claim this tragedy. Dozens of ignitions can occur in the course of a work day and the place was a tinder of chance, many of whose predecessors accidentally burned to ruin before it. That ostensible right’s emergence from its slothful, secular American cultural religion to lay temporary cultural and spiritual claim on this icon of French Catholicism to weaponize the loss is not rational. It’s opportunistic.

    Just wait. If you’re proved right you’ll have your say. For heaven’s sake, take it in due course and be measured.

  • Hangtown Bob April 16, 2019, 8:07 AM

    When I first saw the news reports regarding Notre Dame, I posted the following on Belmont.

    OT, but Notre Dame is burning as we watch…….

    I can’t help but thinking…

    France has been plagued with car burnings and violence from the “youths “for many years now……

    Islamic violence has been increasing across all of the Eurozone…..

    Unchecked immigration has saturated most of Europe with Muslim hordes……

    There have been threats to burn Notre Dame in the past……

    Catholicism has been at odds with Islam for centuries……

    In less than a week, Christians will celebrate their most holy day, Easter……

    Destruction of one of the grandest Cathedrals in the world would be the Holy Grail (so to speak) of an almost infinite number of Islamic terrorists……

    Just thinkin’…..

  • tim April 16, 2019, 9:24 AM

    “Just wait. If you’re proved right you’ll have your say.”

    Sure, and you and just about everyone else, here, in France, and everywhere else will shrug, make excuses, repeat that “Islam is a religion of peace”, “Not all Muslims..blah, blah…” and go on with your lives as if everything is fine.

    Look at that map Gerard just posted…yea can’t imagine why anyone would jump to such an illogical conclusion.

  • Ten April 16, 2019, 9:24 AM

    Good news: A billion dollars will have been raised within a week of this tragedy, and damage is not as bad as it could have been. https://twitter.com/FrAquinasOP/status/1117998779276439552

  • Ten April 16, 2019, 9:55 AM

    Sure, and you and just about everyone else, here, in France, and everywhere else will shrug, make excuses, repeat that “Islam is a religion of peace”, “Not all Muslims..blah, blah…” and go on with your lives as if everything is fine.

    Look at that map Gerard just posted…yea can’t imagine why anyone would jump to such an illogical conclusion.

    Jumping to illogical conclusions is an interesting way to put it when the sheer irrationality of the blinkered, binary view immediately preceding it somehow never dawned on you. You divine a lot of intent where it doesn’t exist. Not theirs; mine.

    This is why deeper, structural analysis rarely occur.

  • Rob De Witt April 16, 2019, 10:45 AM

    Yo, Ten –

    If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s a duck.

    Or for the (ahem) overeducated, consider the principle of Occam’s Razor. Analysis paralysis is not your friend.

  • Ten April 16, 2019, 10:59 AM

    “Yo”, Rob, no time wasted in higher ed here, pal, and you’re a little late for Occam in this thread.

    Next fallacy. Or did you have evidence? On the other hand, I am a mere worm living off the flatulence of the deep ocean vents so I shall just return now to the muck from which I’ve risen.

  • Casey Klahn April 16, 2019, 11:41 AM

    What is “Ten?” That sounds like a Bond villain name.

    He strokes the long haired cat, blinking his one unscathed eye. I would mock your words in Donald Pleasance accent now, but WhoTF talks like you write? Nobody. Did your college prof give you A’s for that shit?

    Go bother some other board, Doc.

  • Ten April 16, 2019, 11:50 AM

    It was established long ago that you’re the board’s resident identitarian, Klahn, and that you imagine in simple, self-satisfied stereotypes. Look how handy that turned out to be. On the other hand, as you can see from my stumbling and fumbling attempts to appear to have some modest intellect, I must now return to my day job as a ** slunk trader. But before that, I must confess I have a compulsion to fondle your beard.

    ** [Editor: “Then I met a great guy, Placenta Ten the Afterbirth Tycoon. Made his in slunks during the war. (Slunks are underage calves trailing afterbirths and bacteria, generally in an unsanitary and unfit condition.)”]

  • Ten April 16, 2019, 12:48 PM

    Since we’re all the way into the cellar now sniping away at a guy who couldn’t write clearly the first time around, and is now back clad in virtue with vague rightist know that my first sentiment upon seeing the pictures from Paris was identical to Pragers: “The symbolism of the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral, the most renowned building in Western civilization, the iconic symbol of Western Christendom, is hard to miss. It is as if God Himself wanted to warn us in the most unmistakable way that Western Christianity is burning — and with it, Western civilization.”

    But anyway, class act, Vanderleun,THANK you very much for improving me and making me explain myself instead of just winging it on a drive-by.

  • ghostsniper April 16, 2019, 2:05 PM

    simmah dah nah doodz

    “Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.”

    Anybody know if the blowtorch thing is true and if it is, why was it being used?
    A blowtorch is almost a medieval tool, spreading heat and flame over a broad area rather than pinpoint like say an acetylene torch. The only time I ever seen a blowtorch used for work was more than 50 years ago when my dad used one to heat up a large heavy tool that came to a point which he then used to solder joints on copper pipes in residential construction. I believe the blowtorch ran off of kerosene.

    For doing something with tar? For waterproofing on the roof? Usually tar is heated in a kettle on the ground then the kettle is hoisted up to the level where it will be used. Generally speaking, fire up on a scaffold or hoist doesn’t seem to be a smart way of doing whatever was being done.

  • Harry April 16, 2019, 3:26 PM

    No matter how the fire started, there are some people who are in a more celebratory mood over the fire. Who could they be? https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=528&v=B64XVAiK-9U

  • Gordon Scott April 16, 2019, 4:12 PM

    “They’ve turned the once pristine streets of Paris into, well, San Francisco.”

    Well, I was there in the early 1970s and early 1980s, and it was a remarkably dirty city then. In the 1980s McDonald’s pulled the franchise from the French guy who owned a bunch of Paris locations, because he wouldn’t keep them clean. They reopened the next day with the same menu but different names. And they were very dirty.

    They were pissing in the little piss booths back then. But shitting in the streets, well, that’s a USA west coast thing.

  • Casey Klahn April 16, 2019, 4:30 PM

    Now I have been described as a white nationalist (“identitarian”). I would be free and clear if I had left Islamists out prejudicially and with a bountiful liberal heart, because it’s raaaaycist to accuse them. When they make threats, you’re a racist for listening. Hell, you’re a racist for being white.

    For the record, I hate all races equally.

    See my carefully crafted comments above and note that I never call names. I may slip in an insult or two, like a good Lincoln-Douglas debater, but name calling is just base.

    If the ND burning weren’t arson, then does that make the anti-Christian and church attacks throughout France less severe? If I weren’t on a war footing, would I be negligent? Did you see the videos of hordes of “Syrians” taking over the thoroughfares leading into the Chunnel on the French side? How about the car drive videos through the Paris streets with vagrants and shit-filled streets? Am I being too racist now? Or am I being racist at all? If I defend the sovereign idea of France, what race(s) am I defending?

    W. A. R. Quote: Andrew Brietbart.

  • Daniel K Day April 16, 2019, 5:35 PM

    Gerard, do you have a source for the “French Churches Vandalized in 2018” map, please?

  • Patvann April 16, 2019, 6:36 PM

    @ Ten, et al:
    While I’ve been well versed in the Islamist Way for the good part of 25 years, and am well aware of the recent church demolitions in France by those of the same, I shall not jump past my God given gift of logic based on the presentation of evidence.
    The timbers were covered in lead sheets, which were being worked on. This requires flame.
    Hundreds of churches have been defiled by Moslems.

    -Let’s wait and see, so as to present our rational minds, instead of lashing out with our irrational hearts…At each other.

    There will be time-enough to respond in a manner fitting, when we actually know something.

  • Vanderleun April 16, 2019, 8:42 PM
  • Tom Hyland April 16, 2019, 10:19 PM

    In the vicinity of 375 Christian churches in France have been vandalized the past year. Paul Joseph Watson has been accused by Buzzfeed of lying that Muslims were celebrating the fire of Notre Dame. THEY WERE! Many of them. Watch this video….
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=528&v=B64XVAiK-9U