STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Does a "Breaking News" video of a church fire document an arson-caused fire at a church in Quebec, Canada? No, that's not true: The fire happened 10 months before the video was posted. Official reports at the time noted a private developer was developing housing on the site and the origin of the fire appeared to be a container next to the Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Allégresses church in the town of Trois Rivieres.
The video appeared in various posts including in an August 8, 2025 post on X (archived here) on the @Sea2sea1way account with the title: "BREAKING NEWS". The title continued:
ISIS terrorist has set fire on a Church in Canada
This is what one such post looked like on X at the time this fact check was written:
(Source: Screenshot by Lead Stories of post at x.com/Sea2Sea1Way.)
The video purporting to show "Breaking News" had been on Instagram for three weeks, posted to the naz_hashem account (archived here) July 18, 2025, implying the Trois Rivieres fire was arson, with no links to documents or police statements corroborating that claim:
(Source: Lead Stories screenshot of naz_hashem post on Instagram.)
In the days immediately after the fire, French language and English language reports did not say the fire was arson-caused, instead noting the housing development being built at the site and reports the fire seemed to have started in a container adjacent to the historic church. Lead Stories will update this fact check when authorities respond with information about the outcome of the investigation into causes of the fire.
Updates:
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2025-08-08T19:25:13Z 2025-08-08T19:25:13Z Updated to replace images of post making the claim, after an X.com example was taken down.
