It’s a very sad discovery made by the inhabitants of a small village of 500 souls, lost in the Côtes-d’Armor countryside east of Guingamp. The violent fire which broke out in the Notre-Dame parish church on the night of Monday April 8 to Tuesday April 9 left only the walls and the altar of the building dating from the 16th century. A part of the history of the Bringolois has gone up in smoke.
It was 9:30 p.m. Monday when the alert was given. The firefighters arrived on site and found that the flames had spread to the 500 m² of the church and the roof had already started to collapse. The fire is impressive and storm Pierrick, which swept across northern Brittany in the evening, is giving the fire fighters a hard time. In all, nearly fifty firefighters will be mobilized to put out the fire. “It’s the fire of the century,” declared the firefighters questioned by Ouest France.
“It’s a disaster, I have tears in my eyes,” reacts a regular resident interviewed by France 3. “The residents of the town are dejected. It is the heritage of the town that is going up in smoke,” declares Philippe Thomas, mayor of Bringolo.
“People were baptized here, they performed their sacrament. It’s full of stories that go up in smoke,” regrets with emotion, Élisabeth Terne, pastoral delegate of the Châtelaudren-Plouagat parish. The commune of Bringolo is one of the twelve relays of the parish. “There was a Sunday mass in the Notre-Dame church once every three months.” The rest of the time, the inhabitants of Bringolo could go to a small chapel located in the countryside near the village. With a capacity of 200 places, the Notre-Dame church always hosted weddings and baptisms. “In the 1980s, the Bringolo church was a parish in itself. It was a living church. It had the particularity of having a choir and chapels which were mounted on a wooden floor. There were very beautiful statues and two banners classified as historical monuments. Celebrating in this church was truly fortunate. It hurts my heart,” she continues. This incident is unprecedented for the Châtelaudren-Plouagat parish
The day after the fire, the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati expressed her solidarity with the residents before adding: “I asked the DRAC of Brittany to give me as soon as possible a precise state of the situation and the prejudice”. The mayor of Bringolo, Philippe Thomas assured that a prize pool will soon be put online to help the town get its church back on its feet. The amount of work is not yet known at this time. According to information from the mayor, an electrical surge was the cause of the fire.