Fire destroys Mormon church in Mesa
An early morning fire Monday destroyed the Mesa Arizona Lehi Stake building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1430 N. Grand St.
No cause is known. An investigation was expected to begin later Monday once the rubble cools.
The building serves three church wards, or congregations, the Mesa Vista, Hillside and Lehi 2nd wards.
“We left the building about 9 p.m. Sunday evening,” said Craig Ahlstrom, stake president. “We had a meeting with about 350 of our young people and served ice cream bars as they left the building.”
The church building next to Mesa Cemetery was erected in 1980. “This is one of our larger buildings,” Ahlstrom said. “There are about 3,200 members of our stake who use this building at different times throughout the week.”
“It is sad. Especially for the people who live in this area, this is the only church they have ever known,” Ahlstrom said. “They raised their families here, the funerals of their parents were here. There is tremendous sadness and a lot of sentiment here in this building.”
Mesa and Tempe fire units, along with a Gilbert battalion chief, responded to the first-alarm fire about 1:40 a.m., said Cpt. Ransom Rush, a commander on the scene. “When we arrived, there were 50- or 60-foot flames shooting out of the roof on the west side of the church,” he said.
Several ladder trucks worked to repress the flames, but only exterior walls remained.
The stake president said when he arrived about 2 a.m., “The roof was partially engulfed on the west end within 30 minutes and pretty much the building was gone.”
The church’s steeple had lowered to the ground, but was pointing skyward. “The church steeple tilted about 45 degrees and then dropped down, and whether it was the heat or whatever, it righted itself straight back up in almost perfect position,” Ahlstrom said. “That is kind of symbolic that we are going to be back and we are going to be fine and we’ll be OK with it.”
A member of the Hillside Ward pointed out it’s merely a structure. “It is just a building and the building is gone, and we will find another place to meet and pick up from there,” said Elaine Stewart. “They had just done a lot of work inside of it, updating it and bringing it up to code. There are just a lot of memories there.”
“It’s bricks and mortar — it can all be replaced,” the stake president said. “No lives were lost and nobody was harmed, either fire personnel or any of our members. We’ll rebuild and we will be here strong.”
No cause is known. An investigation was expected to begin later Monday once the rubble cools.
The building serves three church wards, or congregations, the Mesa Vista, Hillside and Lehi 2nd wards.
“We left the building about 9 p.m. Sunday evening,” said Craig Ahlstrom, stake president. “We had a meeting with about 350 of our young people and served ice cream bars as they left the building.”
The church building next to Mesa Cemetery was erected in 1980. “This is one of our larger buildings,” Ahlstrom said. “There are about 3,200 members of our stake who use this building at different times throughout the week.”
“It is sad. Especially for the people who live in this area, this is the only church they have ever known,” Ahlstrom said. “They raised their families here, the funerals of their parents were here. There is tremendous sadness and a lot of sentiment here in this building.”
Mesa and Tempe fire units, along with a Gilbert battalion chief, responded to the first-alarm fire about 1:40 a.m., said Cpt. Ransom Rush, a commander on the scene. “When we arrived, there were 50- or 60-foot flames shooting out of the roof on the west side of the church,” he said.
Several ladder trucks worked to repress the flames, but only exterior walls remained.
The stake president said when he arrived about 2 a.m., “The roof was partially engulfed on the west end within 30 minutes and pretty much the building was gone.”
The church’s steeple had lowered to the ground, but was pointing skyward. “The church steeple tilted about 45 degrees and then dropped down, and whether it was the heat or whatever, it righted itself straight back up in almost perfect position,” Ahlstrom said. “That is kind of symbolic that we are going to be back and we are going to be fine and we’ll be OK with it.”
A member of the Hillside Ward pointed out it’s merely a structure. “It is just a building and the building is gone, and we will find another place to meet and pick up from there,” said Elaine Stewart. “They had just done a lot of work inside of it, updating it and bringing it up to code. There are just a lot of memories there.”
“It’s bricks and mortar — it can all be replaced,” the stake president said. “No lives were lost and nobody was harmed, either fire personnel or any of our members. We’ll rebuild and we will be here strong.”
2 comments:
Brooke I am so sorry. I heard that a church building was set on fire. Hopefully they get some leads on whoever did it.
That stinks.... I can't believe someone would do that. I hope that find the jerk who did it.
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