Church takes $300,000 in fire damage in stride
BY LINDA
UMCONNECTION STAFF
At 7:45 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 3, when Barb Calligan delivered food for the food pantry to Back River UMC, she noticed smoke. At about the same time the Rev. David Deans, at his home next door, thought he heard a ?beep-beep-beep?-like an alarm. He stepped out of his door to head toward the church.
Billows of black smoke were coming from the church. ?The lobby to the sanctuary was pitch black. The alarm was going off,? Deans said.
Calligan called 911. So did Deborah Deans, as her husband got his first whiff of the smoke and his first glimpse of the damage.
The fire department, located only a few blocks away in this blue-collar community near Essex in
?We?re lucky we found (the fire) when we did,? Deans said. ?It really is a miracle that the fire did not cause worse damage than it did.?
The fire apparently started from an electrical short in the organ, according to the fire inspectors. A blackened, scorched patch, perhaps six-feet across, leaving a deep hole in the middle, now fills the carpet space where the organ used to stand in the sanctuary.
But smoke damage to the sanctuary is extensive. ?It got so hot the thermostat melted,? Deans said. ?The speaker on the ceiling melted.?
The fire inspectors unofficially estimated damages to be at least $300,000. The new sanctuary was just completed in 2001, and all the 105 blue padded chairs and 11 benches must go through an ozone machine treatment to remove the embedded smoke smell. The ceiling will need to be replaced, as will several cracked windows. The grand piano needs repair, and the organ is no more.
The loss of the organ hit Charlotte Schmuff especially hard. She has been the chief organist in the church for 30 to 40 years, Deans said. She isn?t sure what will happen to her. While the physical damage can be repaired it may take longer for the psychological healing to take place.
?We?re going to rebuild and better,? Deans said.
?The fire is very unfortunate and will be a big inconvenience but it won?t stop us from continuing to be the church because the church is not a building but a community of people brought together by the power of God in the name of Jesus Christ,? he said in a letter to the congregation.
Doris Lipscomb, chairwoman of the board of trustees, who learned of the Thursday morning fire around 8 a.m. when a friend living nearby called her, agreed the congregation was coming together. Many people from the community had called to offer help.
On Saturday she was busy at the semi-annual flea market in the church fellowship hall where the congregation will meet for services for the next several months while repairs are underway. She is a little skeptical that the repairs will be done in time for Christmas Eve services as the inspectors and contractors say.
?The most important thing is that we have a place to worship: this hall. We were in it before the sanctuary was done and we can be in it again,? Lipscomb said.
This is not the first fire Back River UMC has experienced. In the early 1900s the sanctuary burned to the ground.
Deans, who is a student pastor, said he has been baptized not only by fire but by Hurricane Isabel as well. On his very first Sunday in 2003, there was an accident in the parking lot. Then two months later, Hurricane Isabel swept through that part of
?The Lord must be training me for something special,? he said.
The community and members are already showing their support. Three days after the fire, 175 people attended Sunday worship in the fellowship hall, reported District Superintendent the Rev. Anthony Hunt, who was there for a scheduled charge conference that afternoon. Deans preached on ?opportunity.?
?Because the church is a people, we will continue to be the church, even if our sanctuary has been burned,? Deans said.
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