Steeple Fire

In the wee hours of Sunday August 3^rd, lightening struck our steeple. Thanks to good neighbors, Keith & Bonnie Steeple fire

Slate, the alarm was sounded shortly thereafter. Although it seemed forever before the fire trucks arrived, it was only about 8 minutes and they then had the visible flames extinguished shortly after arrival. However, they stayed for three hours, periodically hosing the steeple to be sure all the flames and embers were out.

When they arrived, the firemen took the time to climb inside the tower and “shoot” the water up and out and thereby blowing all the embers outside instead of allowing the burning embers to fall inside the tower. They also sealed off the old Sunday school room and the Sanctuary with tarps thereby eliminating any smoke or water damage to those areas (actually not even any smoke smell). Church services were held at our normal hour of 11:00 later in the morning.

The end result is that the steeple is being completely rebuilt. And the sheetrock and insulation in the tower portion has been removed, due to water damage, and will be replaced.

Although the four speakers in the tower appear to be undamaged, evidently some of the current from the lightening “jumped” to the speaker wire and traveled down to the new carillon and that has been returned to the manufacturer for repair/replacement. The brand new electronic carillon had been installed only one month earlier.

If you can find beauty in a disaster, the water spraying out of the top of the tower and lit by fire truck flood lights was quite spectacular.

While the contractor is repairing the steeple, members of the church built a new cross out of a vinyl type material - the old cross was aluminum clad wood.. The top section of the cross is now hollow and a "time capsule" including information on this fire and pictures will be enclosed.

Steeple on yard

Thanks to very friendly neighbors, we are able to "borrow" a section of their yard to rebuild the steeple after lifting it off the tower. Although we did the same thing six years ago when rebuilding the tower and steeple, we have assured them that we will try to not make a habit of this. During this rebuilding time, neighbors on the side street are able to give directions by advising visitors to turn between the Presbyterian Church and its steeple.