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TIDEWATER BAPTIST TEMPLE:
Please pray for wisdom for Tidewater Baptist Temple, in Chesapeake, VA; this morning as we had a fire in the middle of the night last night that demolished the entire sanctuary. Praise God no one was hurt!
Cathy Pearson
We will be praying.
Sanctuary destroyed in church fire:
Missionary family escapes, firefighter hurt
Updated: Wednesday, 28 Sep 2011, 8:14 AM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 28 Sep 2011, 5:59 AM EDT
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) – A Chesapeake firefighter was taken to the hospital after he was hurt battling a massive fire that destroyed a church’s sanctuary Wednesday morning.
The fire began around 2:30 a.m. at the Tidewater Baptist Temple along 1300 Campostella Road.
Captain Mike Thibeault told WAVY.com the firefighter is expected to be okay. He also said when crews first arrived they saw flames and smoke pouring out of the building.
Thibeault said a missionary family, including a man, woman and two children, stayed at the church, but managed to get out safely. Firefighters got the fire under control in about an hour and it was completely out an hour and a half after they arrived on scene.
The sanctuary of the church was destroyed, but Chuck Pearson, the Pastor of Tidewater Baptist says he believes things could be worse.
“The other end of the building is where the offices of the church are, where the computers and paperwork and everything is, so I don’t even think they had to put any water on that end of the building, so the things, the documents that we need, they’ll all be intact. Everything that’s at the other end, it’s just sound equipment and the pews and things like that and we’ll just replace those,” said Pearson.
Pearson also had a message for his church community.
“Everybody is okay. There’s nothing that can’t be replaced. It’s just material things. We will have services this Sunday. We’ll probably have it at one of the churches in the area, but we’ll be fine.
Church will be great. We’ll be great,” Pearson said.
A fire marshal is expected to begin an investigation shortly. The ATF was also notified which is standard procedure in a church fire according to Thibeault. Thibeault says, so far, the cause of the fire is not suspicious.