A small Russian Orthodox church burned down on Sunday April 17 in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. A call for donations has been launched to rebuild the building, the fire of which was probably accidental. The investigation is ongoing. The interior of the Saint-Séraphin-de-Sarov church, a very small wooden building located in Lecourbe (15th), “was completely destroyed by fire” in the afternoon, without causing any victims, had specified firefighters on Sunday. Sad #Easter Sunday for the faithful of the Saint-Séraphin de Sarov Orthodox Church, rue Lecourbe, affected by an accidental fire this afternoon #Paris15 #pa pic.twitter.com/f9GoW5Mjs6 – Mairie du 15 (@mairie15) April 17, 2022 Refuting this Tuesday April 19 the fact that “candles could have been left lit and unattended” by the faithful in the wooden building, the rector of the church assured that it was “not open outside offices” and that “only members of the parish in charge of maintenance have access to it”. “The candles are lit a few minutes before the start of an office, but the fire broke out around 4 p.m., about two hours before the scheduled office,” Archpriest Nicolas Crnokrak said in a statement, assuring that it was ‘therefore impossible that candles could have been left burning’. An open investigation, a call for donations launched An investigation has been opened to determine the origin of the disaster, which still remained unknown on Tuesday. However, it is the accidental track that is privileged, even if several places associated with Russia have been targeted by acts of vandalism since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Pending the results of the investigations, a call for donations has also been launched. Three years ago, the church had been able to count on its faithful to collect 800,000 euros which had made it possible to renovate and bring the interior of the structure up to standard, as well as the roof. Bad timing, the Orthodox – who, unlike the Catholics – do not celebrate Easter on the weekend of April 16 and 17, but on the 23 and 24, under the Julian calendar, will not be able to celebrate their religious services in the disaster-stricken church . A new location should be found to meet the demand. The town hall of the 15th arrondissement has made available to the rector a protected room, to shelter all the icons and other works of art that can be saved from the disaster.