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A two-story, 100-year-old church burned down this morning. More than 100 firefighters were dispatched to the Emmanuel Temple, an African Methodist Episcopal Church on the 500 block of North LeClaire, this morning, and while they were able to save the house next door, the church itself is pretty much destroyed. The steeple and bell tower are intact, but the roof and sanctuary are gone. One firefighter injured his shoulder, but everyone else is fine; the 20-person congregation is, understandably, devastated. [Trib, CBS 2, ABC 7 (nice comment), image via NBC 5]
Fire Destroys Austin Church
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I'm sorry..."the 20-person congregation"? TWENTY? As in two zero? That's not a congregation. That's a moderately successful dinner party.
What the hell kind of church has only twenty people in its entire congregation? Even David Koresh managed to corral a few dozen.
I hope the Chicago Department of Water Management was able to dispatch the "Hydrant Truck", right? You mean no support staff from the Water Department ever showed up?
There have been a number of historic churches that have burned in the past decade. Our city needs to a better job of landmark protection. Many of these 100 year old churches should be designated as official landmarks.
The next step is that these historic structures should be given a degree of fire inspection that is used for historic churches in the U.K. and elsewhere. Strict oversite for roof repairs and other high-fire-risk repairs of such structures is also required. We could learn a lot from Europeans in this regard.
Ward Up, part of the problem might go back to my original post. Yes, we have these old, beautiful churches...but then we leave them in the hands of so-called "congregations" consisting of just a handful of people. They aren't even part of the community at that point. They're private playthings of a few individuals, most of whom (I'm guessing) have little or no interest in or ability to conduct even the most rudimentary level of basic upkeep.
It's no wonder they burn down; they're basically abandoned buildings.
I just hope the reverend's BMW and or Mercedes, didn't get burned, that would be the real tradegy!