WAKEFIELD,
Mass. - The First Baptist Church in Wakefield began
picking up the pieces after a fire destroyed the 150-year-old structure earlier
this week.
Witnesses said that lightning struck the
spire of the church as severe weather moved
through the area, sparking a fast-moving fire on Oct. 23.
Crews began dismantling the remnants of the historic landmark in the
rain Wednesday morning.
The 150-year-old building will now be torn down completely.
Just one painting hanging in the
front entrance of the church was left behind, nearly untouched.
It has just a few
little drips on it, but otherwise, the painting depicting Jesus Christ survived
the inferno Tuesday night and now resides inside a parishioners' house.
"I'm personally taking it as a
sign and a reminder that the Jesus, the Christ that we serve is still alive and
even though our church building is gone our church is here and the God we serve
is still here," said Maria Kakalowski, a parishioner of the church.
Although
there is no official cause yet, several residents said they saw the steeple hit
by lightning and set off a fire that grew quickly to seven alarms.
"I was down about a mile away and I just saw
this fireball in the sky. It just went up like a tinderbox. It's a building
built in 1870 and it's balloon-style so once the fire starts you know the whole
building just went up quickly," the church's pastor, Reverend Doctor Norm
Bendroth, said.
The painting is serving as a source of strength for the parishioners and
it may one day hang in a new church, rebuilt upon the memory of charred timbers
No comments:
Post a Comment