It was quite a sight. Big angry flames, clouds of smoke, a pyramid of iron and steel consumed by fire. What is it about the destruction of a church, the sight of a steeple brought down by conflagration, that feels particularly unsettling even now, in the age of the secularists, and the atheists, and the agnostics like me? I suppose it’s the fact that the religious instinct runs deeper than we think it does, but there’s a practical question too. What’s with all the fires?

The response this weekend to the fire in Cumbernauld says it all. “Another significant fire in [[Cumbernauld]] this evening as St Mungo’s Church is ablaze,” said the community news page, the significant word being “another”. Undoubtedly, the destruction of the church is a particularly serious blow to the town, but there have been other fires. The Cottage Theatre a few days ago. The recycling centre at Blairlinn in April. The wildfires the same month and the incidents of cars torched in the street, deliberate fire-raising, all adding to the impression that something’s up.

It’s the same in Glasgow. Just a couple of days before the fire at St Mungo’s Church, firefighters were tackling a blaze at a warehouse in the Kinning Park area of the city, and as the drivers on the M8 nearby watched the smoke billowing out over the motorway, no doubt some of them, me included, mentally added it to the list of the other buildings in the city that have ended in fire. With one in particular right at the top of the list, the most famous: the Mack.

So what’s going on, and can we detect some kind of trend? You may have seen the pictures, rather creepy........

© Herald Scotland