A very surreal day

Yesterday, while attending my brother-in-laws graduation, I received some horrible news. The Longfellow Park church building was burning down.

They were holding stake conference in the building when the fire broke out around 10:30. It's believed to have been started by an electrical problem in the attic.

After realizing that it was not a joke and that the alarm was caused by a real fire and not a curious little kid; the building was evacuated. It's being reported that there were 300 people in the building at the time. Thankfully no one was injured.


An assembly line was formed to try and salvage anything we possibly could from the building. The Quaker Community church across the street allowed us to store our books and paintings there until we could figure out what to do.

Later that evening, they asked members of the church to come back to the building to help get out whatever they could. The building was not safe to be in for the most part and we were told to watch for nails and broken glass. I was in the kitchen, working away when the firemen came back and told us that our time was up . . . the ceiling could come down any minute and we needed to get out. There was water dripping from the ceiling and up to my ankles in some places on the floor.

(This is a view of the Second floor hallway)

Below is what is left of our chapel. I was shocked to find out that the church insures their own buildings. Meaning, if anything happens to them, we are not covered.

One of the real miracles that took place yesterday happened in the evening after we were told to leave the building for safety reasons. One of the girls who was there had found the blue prints, the original permits and other important documents for the building 2 years ago. Knowing they were important documents, she put them in a cupboard in the library for safe keeping.

When she told the firemen this, they told her that they were very sorry but the library was one of the most damaged rooms in the building. After some discussion, one of the firemen volunteered to go up and look for the documents himself. He returned shortly with the documents in hand. They were completely untouched.

I really am sad to see this beautiful, historic building go. It was the first chapel in New England and such a beautiful place. Thank you Luke Hutchison for the amazing pictures.