Fire Hits Indiana Church During Sunday Worship

Nov. 15, 2011
YOUNSTVILLE, Ind. -- A Montgomery County congregation is grappling with the loss of a 160-year-old church that was destroyed by fire this weekend. Services had just started Sunday at the Younstville Christian Church when the fire broke out. Firefighters arrived to find flames coming from the steeple and the roof caved in. They said wind help fan the fast-moving blaze.

YOUNSTVILLE, Ind. --

A Montgomery County congregation is grappling with the loss of a 160-year-old church that was destroyed by fire this weekend.

Services had just started Sunday at the Younstville Christian Church when the fire broke out.

Firefighters arrived to find flames coming from the steeple and the roof caved in. They said wind help fan the fast-moving blaze.

"It started on this end, and with the wind coming this direction, it just took the flames from one end to the other," said Pastor Alan Goff. "It was such an old facility, it went up like a tinderbox."

One firefighter suffered minor injuries battling the blaze. Everyone in the 30-member congregation was able to escape safely.

"It's a loss that I don't know how to explain, and yet I want to make sure it's understood that it's just a building," Goff said.

Goff and his wife, Michelle, were married in the church in 1980. Michelle Goff said she has been attending church there since she was a young girl in the 1960s.

"My mom brought all the kids here. My brothers and sisters got baptized here," she said.

The building is a total loss, but the Goffs believe the memories made and the faith felt at the church will continue for years to come.

"The building is just a building. That's not the church. The church is the people that go there," Michelle Goff said. "Everybody is safe. You know, the building can be rebuilt."

Firefighter said they suspect a faulty electrical system may have sparked the fire.

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