By Tim Binnall
Attendees at a Palm Sunday parade in Spain were understandably aghast when a statue of the Virgin Mary suddenly burst into flames. According to a local media report, the eerie scene occurred during a procession in the city of Vélez-Málaga. As a float carrying the statue wound its way through the streets of the community, onlookers were stunned to see that the piece had inexplicably caught fire. A rather unsettling video of the incident shows a man scrambling onto the vehicle in a desperate attempt to extinguish the flames as people watching nearby unleash anguished screams and stunned exclamations.
Fortunately, the blaze lasted less than a minute before it was put down by a group of men, two of whom wound up needing medical attention due to burns that they suffered during the melee. A subsequent investigation into the unnerving event found that the fire had been caused by a candle that had fallen onto the garment adorning the statue as the float briefly stopped while trying to navigate the parade route. While that may be the prosaic explanation for the uncanny inferno, one imagines that many may wonder if there was a proverbial divine hand behind the incident and, if so, what kind of worrisome message it might have been meant to convey.