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French police officers inspect the partially burnt facade of the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul in Nantes, western France
French police officers inspect the partially burnt facade of the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul in Nantes, western France, on Sunday morning. Photograph: Sebastien Salom-Gomis/AFP/Getty Images
French police officers inspect the partially burnt facade of the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul in Nantes, western France, on Sunday morning. Photograph: Sebastien Salom-Gomis/AFP/Getty Images

Nantes Cathedral fire started in three different places, say French police

This article is more than 3 years old

Man tasked with locking up cathedral cleared of all suspicion

The fire that destroyed a 17th century organ and shattered a stained glass window at Nantes Cathedral started in three different places, the French authorities have said.

A 39-year-old man tasked with locking up the cathedral on Friday night hours before the fire was cleared of all suspicion on Sunday after being questioned by police.

“Any interpretation implicating this person with what occurred is premature and hasty,” the Nantes prosecutor Pierre Sennès said earlier in the day. “It is normal procedure for him to be questioned.”

About 100 firefighters tackled the blaze at the St Peter and St Paul Cathedral reported early on Saturday morning. Initial reports suggest it started in three separate areas of the Gothic structure, one near the “grand” organ, which was destroyed, a second near a smaller organ left of the altar and a third to the right of the altar. At least one of the fires appears to have originated near an electrical fuse board.

There was no evidence of a break-in at any of the cathedral’s six doors and detectives are trying to establish if the fire was accidental or arson. Most of the cathedral structure, built between the 15th and 19th centuries was saved.

The man questioned by police was a volunteer worker originally from Rwanda who was also housed by the diocese. He locked up the cathedral on Friday evening and also regularly helped the cathedral’s clergy with serving during mass.

“He was in the process of discussing the renewal of his visa with the prefecture. I don’t believe for one second that he could have set fire to the cathedral. It was a place he adored,” Jean-Charles Novwak, clerk to the cathedral, told Le Figaro.

Cathedral rector, Father Hubert Campenois said on Saturday that everything “was in order” on Friday evening and that “a very close inspection was made before it closed, like every evening”.

Nantes Cathedral was damaged by Allied bombing during the second world war. In January 1972, a large fire started on the roof, believed to have been sparked by a worker’s blowtorch. It took 13 years to repair.

Police fire experts arrived in Nantes on Saturday evening but were awaiting for firefighters to declare the platform on which the organ stood safe for them to examine.

Martin Morillon, president of the Nantes Cathedral association, described the loss of the organ as a “tragedy” that had left everyone “immensely sad”. As well as the organ a painting, Saint-Clair Curing the Blind by Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin, a 19th century French painter, was also destroyed.

“Disbelief is the predominant feeling today because it is our heritage that has disappeared, that has gone up in smoke,” Morillon told LCI television.

Laurent Ferlay, head of the Loire-Atlantic fire brigade, said the cathedral roof had not been touched. “We’re not talking about a Notre-Dame de Paris scenario or the 1972 fire,” he told Ouest France newspaper.

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