A Hero Saves a Burning Church in Provence

Last Sunday another French church was set on fire, this time the church of Notre-Dame de Grace in the village of Eyguières in Provence. The following video features a radio interview with a courageous young man named Joël Jouve, whose prompt intervention saved the church from much more extensive damage.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00   Good day, madam. —Thank you for being with us on France Bleu Provence Matin, to tell
00:04   us about your act of courage. It was Sunday at the end of the day
00:08   in the Notre-Dame de Grace church in Eyguières. And I think that all started when you saw flames
00:12   coming out of this 18th century building? —I would rather say that all started
00:16   with a strong smell. I keep my car next to the church, and
00:20   a strong smell was noticeable in the vehicle, and I said to my wife, who was next to me,
00:24   “There is trouble, there’s trouble!” And I exited my vehicle, and yes,
00:28   I turned my head to the left and 3 metres from me [10 ft] flames were visible from
00:32   [unintelligible] window of the Notre-Dame church. Flames that were more
00:36   than 5-6 metres [20 ft] high. There I crossed the street, I quickly took the phone, I notified
00:40   the police and firefighters, both — “leave a message”, “leave a message”
00:45   Since on my [unintelligible] phone I always have the precise phone numbers,
00:49   I called the gendarmerie of Eyguières. So an entire protocol was starting:
00:53   “your first name, your family name” [unintelligible] and then I went with a
00:57   person —who was also on the sidewalk — into the church. —So you didn’t ponder. You just ran?
01:01   I didn’t reflect. I considered the situation: is there anyone in the church? Is someone in danger?
01:04   first of all. I entered by the small door to avoid [unintelligible],
01:07   absolutely, and the person who was following me
01:10   didn’t enter, and “enter” is [unintelligible] because when I entered that church
01:13   there was a strong smell of burning. —It wasn’t possible to breathe in the church?
01:17   It was impossible to breathe, that’s an understatement. It was burning, it was toxic,
01:21   and no light, which surprised me, because Notre-Dame always has lights on. I have to say, because
01:25   I’m somewhat of a believer, I go to light candles, I often go to church. And that morning I wasn’t
01:29   [unintelligible] because I went to get a puppy for my stepdaughter.
01:33   Yes. And when I entered I looked for the fire. I know the church, because
01:37   I entered, I looked for fire: the right side of the church, way in the back. And then I arrived at
01:41   this fire, I said to myself, I have to do something. —So what exactly did you do, when you arrived
01:45   at something like that? —What I did… but listen, I went towards a place that I didn’t know,
01:49   well, that I knew was behind the altar, where I found already, first of all, two buckets for water,
01:53   I didn’t know if those were buckets for water, because I knew a lot of people, I was born in
01:56   that town, voilà, and I managed to throw two buckets of water on a wooden platform, because that
02:01   platform was on fire, and the flames were licking the walls and were coming from both sides
02:05   There were tapestries and paintings. Difficult. Difficult. I would say. And of course,
02:10   from then on I started to scream: find a fire extinguisher, find something to extinguish it
02:13   I felt that I had to do something. I’m not God, I’m not. I managed to tell myself: we will
02:18   do something. Not extinguish the fire: but contain it, stop it from spreading, from propagating
02:22   everywhere inside this beautiful church. —And did that moment take long?
02:26   It took, I would say… this action, this situation,
02:30   I think I was fighting for 20 to 25 minutes. Alone. All alone. —All alone, before relief arrived?
02:34   I could also thank the person who was outside, who is another person
02:38   who owns the movie theater in Eyguières; I think he broke the world speed record,
02:42   because we did everything. —He brought you water? He has…? — I was controlling
02:45   the fire with the extinguishers, with the church fire extinguishers, and I especially asked —
02:48   I was controlling the fire, and I was managing the people
02:51   trying to help me, from the outside. They brought me fire extinguishers from everywhere.
02:54   They were asking: what can I do? Where are they? [the extinguishers] —Go and look in the stores!
02:58   It’s the law. We found the fire extinguishers. And we were done; I think I used 6-7 extinguishers.
03:02   Not counting the buckets of water I poured from the lavabos. I emptied the church lavabos.
03:06   And I was dousing, dousing, dousing, as long as I could. And I managed to reduce the flames
03:09   and contain them, and voilà. —Being originally from the village, and you also told us
03:12   how much of a believer you are, were you also thinking especially about the fire
03:15   in Notre-Dame de Paris at that moment? —You know, in such a moment you think about everything.
03:18   You especially think about all you lived in this church. I experienced the baptism of my daughter,
03:22   of my stepdaughter. I experienced deaths in that church. I experienced joys. Happiness.
03:26   Voilà. I experienced things. I experienced people whom I knew
03:30   who have departed. I saw situations that made me better.
03:34   The bell tower. The bell tolling in the morning when I’m waking up. Voilà. All that.
03:37   I mean all that. It is part of it, and it caused me to…
03:42   I think I fought, I was on that level, I fought this fire. You might say no,
03:47   [unintelligible] It was a tough save and I managed to do something…
03:51   Perhaps I didn’t win, but I managed to save something. —Thank you very much —However,
03:54   one thing is clear, that I’m not a hero, or anything like that. Voilà. I’m just someone
03:57   from the village. As simple as that. —Thank you very much, Joël,
04:00   for coming to tell us on France Bleu Provence
04:03   the story of this incredible rescue. Which you can also find with pictures on FranceBleu.fr
04:07   Thank you; have a nice day. —Thank you very much, have nice day as well. — See you soon.
04:11   And FranceBleu.fr of course to listen again to this conversation.
 

5 thoughts on “A Hero Saves a Burning Church in Provence

  1. Yeah, and Notre Dame in Paris catch fire from the construction!!, all the churches burning all over France with no constructions on the side , people wake up finally, my God ..

  2. By now, it’s regrettably clear that the entire world hit its collective snooze button after the 1993 WTC attack.

    (Fewer still remember the nightmarish dream of how a truck bomb, mis-parked BY A BARE FEW METERS, failed to topple the North Tower like a skyscraper Sequoia and potentially crush millions, WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THE 9-11 ATROCITY PLANNED—save that the hijackers were incompetent pilots and their impact points were not sufficiently low enough to domino the Twin Towers as intended.)

    After almost twenty years of futile fits and starts, it remains apparent that Western powers have yet to give full gravitas to the 9-11 Atrocity.

    However unclear on the subject a complacent world has become—even as it huddles beneath the West’s multi-trillion-dollar GWOT umbrella—there can be no misinterpreting what was meant by the 2019 Easter Atrocities. All that went lacking was for the nearly 400 INNOCENT SRI LANKAN VICTIMS TO BE INSIDE NOTRE DAME WHEN IT BURNED.

    In case any clarity is missing—and however much they want to deny it or pretend that there’s any choice in this matter—THE WORLD IS AT TOTAL WAR WITH ISLAM.

    It is now critical to attrit Islamic resources before the crown jewels of Western Civilization are brought down around the ears of smirking, virtue signaling, PCMC, Culturally Marxist, Pomo-Prog, Tranzi Globalist, halo-polishers.

    Time is of the essence. This cabal of an Antichrist pope, EUSSR, and NWO are drooling in their sleep over just the real estate value of properties laying fallow beneath these architectural masterpieces.

    Those who ignore or deny these simple facts are the enemy. Full stop.

    • The world is not at total war with Islam. Islam is at total war with the world.

      • The world is not at total war with Islam. Islam is at total war with the world.

        Thank you for that blinding glimpse of the obvious. It is specifically why I mentioned about, “however much they want to deny it or pretend that there’s any choice in this matter”.

        Since you require this presumedly needless clarification: At present, the world is at Total War with Islam.

        The slight problem being that dar al-Harb is at Total Politically Correct War with Islam, when no such thing ever has existed, or ever will exist.

        At present, it’s exceedingly difficult to tell what threshold will (of necessity) have to be crossed before, out of sheer survival politicians on their way to the gallows decide to hand over their football codes. The tragic odds-on favorite continues to be one or more Western cities vaporizing in nuclear plasma before its political vampire elite feel compelled to set down their fizzing Champagne tulips, pick the caviar out of their teeth, and finally get around to pressing the Big Red Button™.

        It’s not a matter of “if”, but “when”. Islamic taqlid literally assures it.

        The 2019 Easter Atrocities laid bare Islam’s limitless barbarity. Each passing day sees increasing numbers of people who are no longer willing to distinguish between Sunni or Shiite, moderate or extremist, nominal or pious, and simply lump all of these near-unanimously un-objecting Muslims, active or noninvolved, into the same tub of bathwater that’s headed for the window.

        Much like Communist China, Islam is making too many enemies too fast.

        That sort of free-floating hostility cannot be given a pass by anyone who wants to physically survive. It really is that binary.

        In April of 2019 Islam officially passed the tipping point where it is no longer acceptable to tolerate its wanton destruction of civilization. End of line.

  3. Having just read the interview transcript, my heart is breaking that much more.

    Had Paris a single Joël Jouve, we might have a Notre Dame today.

    I may have to continue wearing my yellow vest whenever I’m out-of-doors until Micron is tried, convicted, and executed as an accomplice to the arson at Notre Dame cathedral. He deserves nothing less.

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