Fire destroys Saint

Fire destroys Saint-Simon Church on Acadian Peninsula

Firefighters from three departments could not save largest wooden church in New Brunswick

Saint-Simon Church on the Acadian Peninsula, believed to be the largest wooden church in New Brunswick, was destroyed Monday morning in a fire the police deem suspicious.

Firefighters in the area received a call around 3:30 a.m., pointing to a fire alarm going off in the Saint-Simon community.

"Sometimes we have false alarms, but I already had a bad feeling," Chief Luc Dugas of the Caraquet Fire Department told Radio-Canada in French. "I told myself we never had problems with this alarm."

No one was hurt in the fire, which is now under investigation by the RCMP and the Office of the Fire Marshal.

Sgt. Sylvain Bergeron told CBC News on Monday afternoon that RCMP are investigating the fire as suspicious.

Dugas also believes the cause of the fire is suspicious because of where he thinks it started.

"At this time, we believe someone would have set the fire," Dugas said.

Motion detectors were alerted to movement inside the church around 3:20 a.m., he said.

When firefighters arrived, the flames had spread throughout the sacristy.

"We tried to contain it but as soon as it gets inside the roofing, forget it, you can't extinguish it," Dugas said.

Saint-Simon Church was built more than a century ago in the community that is now part of the Municipality of Caraquet,

Monique Albert Léger was awakened by the sound of sirens in the night, and what she saw outside her home broke her heart.

"The flames had reached the steeple and there was nothing left to do," Leger said.

She has many memories of the church. She was married there four years ago, and it's where her child was baptized.

"It hits close to home. It's our heart, it's our lungs, it's the center of our village. We just lost a big piece."

Caraquet Mayor Bernard Theriault called the destruction of the church a tragedy.

He said the Saint-Simon area used to have about 900 residents, but is now down to about 600.

Even with a dwindling population, however, residents still came up with the money to keep the church in good shape, Theriault said.

"It was a very beautiful church by [the Acadian architect] Nazaire Dugas, built between 1910 and 1920 and we still used it," the mayor said on Radio-Canada's La Matinale on Monday as he stood at the scene of the fire.

"Le Festival Acadien used it again last week for recitals and concerts."

Residents in Saint-Simon have lost other institutions that people considered part of the fabric of their community, according to Theriault.

They lost a school and a credit union, he said, adding that the community's co-op building burned down about 30 years ago too.

"The church was the last element that belongs to the community, that was built for and by the community," Theriault said Monday afternoon.

It's the second time in 10 years that a church in the northeast has been destroyed by fire. In 2018, a fire destroyed the church in Bas-Caraquet.

Fire departments in Caraquet, Bertrand and Shippagan were still battling the fire at 10 a.m. Monday.

According to Shippagan fire Chief Yannick Chiasson, this type of fire is a big challenge.

"It emits a lot of heat," he told Radio-Canada. "There is the height of the walls. There is not much you can do except protect the structures next to it."

Four neighbouring homes were damaged by the heat of the flames, but no one was hurt.

The Bishop of the Diocese of Bathurst, Msgr. Michel Proulx, confirmed that the church was insured but said it's too early to talk about reconstruction.

"First, what is important, is to make sure that everyone is OK, that the community can continue to gather," he said.

He said he is sad for the congregation and for the community of Saint-Simon.

"It's a wooden church, it's a beautiful church, a building that bears witness to the faith of the ancestors who built it, and also to the faith of the communities that continue to gather there and maintain it," he said.

Theriault said everyone he has spoken with in Saint-Simon since the fire said they need a new church in the area.

"We will have to work very closely with them now to see how we're going to cope," he said. fi

Katelin Belliveau is a CBC reporter based in Moncton.

With files from Nadia Gaudreau, Radio-Canada