Nine Fire Departments Battle N.C. Church Fire

March 17--STEDMAN

The congregation of Oak Grove Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church celebrated their centennial in October.

But Saturday the church located in the Bethany community mourned the loss of the sanctuary after an electrical fire gutted the main part of the building.

"The church is here," Pastor David Taylor, surrounded by about 25 church members, said. "The building is damaged, but the church is here."

Bethany Fire Department received a call at 5:38 a.m. that the church off Oak Grove Church Road had caught fire.

When his crews arrived, Fire Chief Keith Jackson said, flames were leaping from a large hole in the back of the building. A large glass window had blown out, he said.

"More flames were visible out of the front, as well," Jackson said. "It looks like the sanctuary is a total loss."

A Cumberland County Sheriff's Office fire investigator told Jackson the cause appeared to be electrical, originating from a basement below the sanctuary.

Jackson said investigators had ruled out arson because none of the church doors appeared to have been broke into.

Church members gathered around Taylor, who was bent over a melted guitar case trying to pry it open with a screwdriver.

They cheered when the case gave way and revealed that the 12-string guitar was nearly untouched by the flames.

"It was a gift from my family," Taylor said of the guitar. "It's replaceable, like everything else, but it's a piece of our worship."

Taylor said it had been tucked beneath a front pew in the sanctuary.

Other remnants from inside the church didn't fare as well.

Fire crews had salvaged a small electric piano, some hymnals and pew cushions. Everything was charred and covered in ash.

Two pillars, which were once white, lay blackened on the singed grass just outside the church's side entrance.

They were part of decorations Sonya Monzingo had set up the night before for her 25th wedding anniversary vow renewal that was to take place later Saturday.

"We had just been up here at 12:30 p.m. that night decorating," Monzingo said. "We live right down the street. So when we got the call, we got dressed and came back.

Flames, she said, were coming out of both ends of the church.

Other churches in the area had offered their facilities for the Monzingo's renewal, but she said they likely will postpone the ceremony.

The brick building was built in 1973, according to Taylor, who has pastored the church for 17 years. Before that, the congregation met in a smaller, wooden building.

An educational wing and fellowship hall were added onto the 1973 structure later, Taylor said.

According to Jackson, crews were able to contain the fire to the sanctuary. The classrooms and fellowship hall had smoke damage.

"We were able to reconnect power to the structure behind for services," Jackson said.

Taylor said worship is scheduled for 11 a.m. today in the youth building, located about 100 yards behind the main church.

In the future, he hopes to be able to reconnect electricity to the fellowship hall and hold services there until the church can be rebuilt.

"I just loved the building," Taylor said. "It was a beautiful sanctuary. It's a building. It can be rebuilt."

Nine area fire departments were called to help fight the flames.

Jackson said the blaze was extinguished about an hour after their arrival.

But he feared that with such a big fire, water would run out quickly. The nearest hydrant was a 1 1/2miles away.

One engine shuttled water from Wade-Stedman and Maxwell Road to three other trucks fighting the fire off Oak Grove Church Road.

It took 27,000 gallons of water, Jackson said, to put out the fire. At no point did water stop flowing, he said.

Staff writer Ali Rockett can be reached at [email protected] or 910-486-3528.

Copyright 2013 - The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.