Posted on 06/29/2013 7:28:00 PM PDT by iowamark
DANBURY, CT - St. Nicholas Church, founded in the city 90 years ago, was decimated by fire Saturday afternoon.
"My guess is the church is totaled," said Fire Chief Geoff Herald as fire crews from out the area shot cascades of water over its collapsed roof and into the gold-dome church on Pembroke Road.
The Rev. John Cigan, the church's pastor, who had held services in the church Saturday morning, sobbed as he watched firefighters battle the blaze and was too overcome with emotion to speak about the loss.
"It's awful," said church member Donna Stelzel, as steam and gray smoke clouded the blue sky. "I came here to pray. All I can do is cry."
Firefighters rushed to the scene about 2 p.m. Saturday after receiving a call about the blaze. Volunteer units from throughout the area joined the Danbury department at the scene.
After firefighters had the blaze under control, they continued to pour water into the church to make sure the fire was extinguished.
Water poured out of St. Nicholas' front door and cascaded down the church's front steps. Firefighters had to break the church's stained-glass windows to get water inside.
"I wish I didn't have to look," church member Steve Sedlak said. "I helped build that church."
St. Nicholas Church is a Byzantine Catholic Church. While it uses the rites of the Greek Orthodox Church, it is part of the Roman Catholic Church.
The church first was located on Roberts Avenue near Western Connecticut State University in 1923. Having outgrown that small chapel, it moved to its new location on Pembroke Road and opened its doors to parishioners in 1996.
Stelzel said the church brought some of the elements of Roberts Avenue -- including some stained glass windows -- and installed them into the new church...
(Excerpt) Read more at newstimes.com ...
Muslim or Homo? Doubt it was an accident.
Or just lefties.
Norway had a terror campaign in the nineties that ended with around 50 churches burned in a year, many of them hundreds of years old. The police was extremely uninterested in catching any culprits.
The left now is calling for renewed burning engagements.
Wasn’t that the Black Metal satanist stuff?
True, could be standard liberals.
I thought “decimated” meant only one tenth was destroyed. The author could have said “severely damaged” and been more accurate.
The church was built in 1996, making it only about 14 years old. That means it had to comply with all modern fire codes; hence, a very suspicious fire, probably arson.
Decimated? It was reduced by 10%? Looks worse than that.
That was “satanists”, yes. But judging from their internals, they were exactly like any democrat of today.
I sat on their internal communications and planning for years. So did the police and even mil intel. They didn’t move before one of them committed murder so bestial and in-your-face that they had to, and even then most of the stuff got no reaction.
It did. The meaning is shifting to one tenth surviving.
Like "awful" used to mean awesome...
Exactly! I was going to make that very point. 90% should remain if the church was only “decimated”. That point was reiterated this week on the History Channel when they were talking about Caligula marching on Britain and the troops rebelling.
Well they were a religion of peace before the religion of peace so it would have been wrong for anyone to stop them..... How dare those evil people force their morality on those innocent and peaceful children? /s
What this means is that this newspaper is written by illiterates.
Surprised?
I wonder what the Saturday Homily was all about? It just might give a clue.
I thought “decimated” meant only one tenth was destroyed. The author could have said “severely damaged” and been more accurate.
You beat me to it, thecodont. People who can't be troubled to exercise dictionaries should quit trying to masquerade as journalists.
Buildings can't be "decimated." A single anything can't be decimated.
Only populations, large groups of people, or at the very least, a large number of things can be decimated.
Wow. I live in the town next to where this church is located. Sirens were going off all afternoon in my town as our volunteer fire services assisted in putting out the fire. I went into a local shop late in the day and asked the owner if he knew why sirens were blaring all afternoon. His reply... I hear my church burned down. :(
Why us everyone on this thread being so nasty? Sad.
Have a nice Sunday.
Thanks for posting. This Greek Orthodox church has a wonderfully active community and is loved in the area. Such a shame and the fire will be investigated.
It is a wonderful church. They do a lot of work helping people with addictions.
I agree that FReepers were nasty presumably they did not know that the church was Greek Orthodox and indeed a wonderful community of worshippers.
FReepmail to you.
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