Charter oak church fire

11/15/2005

Tuesday night at approximately 7:30 p.m. thunderstorms moved through the area and the Churubusco / Smith Twp. Fire Department was dispatched to a lightning strike with possible flames visible at the Charter Oak Church.

Firefighter Darrell Resler arrived and found flames venting through the east end of the building fanned by strong winds out of the west. He immediately coded it a 704 working structure fire.

Fire Chief Kris Bair arrived on scene and setup the incident command post on the south side of the building and moved all fireground traffic to Indiana Mutual Aid. Meanwhile, firefighter Resler assumed the responsibility of water supply on the Noble County Fire Frequency. At this point, mutual aid was requested from 10 departments in three different counties.

Pump 203 arrived, led by Combat Chief Jim Horne and set up on the south side of the building. Crews entered the building through the double doors and encountered a working attic fire.

Pump 201 supplied by Tank 204 was staged on C.R. 300 East and stretched lines in behind Pump 203 and set up deluge gun operations.

Fire crews continued to battle the blaze for at least 20 minutes before fire errupted from the bell tower at the west end of the building. An immediate evacuation was then ordered by command and Pump 201 started master stream operations to try and push the fire out the east end. Minutes after the evacuation, the roof over the chapel collapsed.

All operations were then considered as a defensive attack only and Tower 10 from Kendalville set up on the west side, supplied by Pump 201.

Church members began to converge on the scene and watched as firefighters brought the fire under contorl. After meeting with the congregation it was decided to try and save as much as possible inside the structure. Crews removed truck load after truck load of items from the building, including a cross from the chapel unscathed from the fire. Firefighter Ron Slagal and Ben Rinker returned the invaluable item to the members as tears of happiness and joy streamed down their faces.

The fire was declared under control at 8:46 p.m. and firefighters remained on the scene until 10:45. Wednesday personnel returned twice to extinguish hot spots.

The building was constructed in 1896 as a Methodist worship center. The founding congregation used it until the early 1970's. The current congregation moved in during the mid 1970's and added an addition to the building in late 2005.

Firefighters attended a ground breaking ceremony in the spring of 2006.