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Video: Fire breaks out at Lutheran Church in Cambridge on Easter Sunday
Authorities believe no one was in the church when the fire started. No injuries have been reported.
Firefighters battled a six-alarm fire at a church in Cambridge for hours on Easter Sunday after it broke out in the early evening.
Cambridge police spokesperson Jeremy Warnick said firefighters responded to the fire at Faith Lutheran Church just before 5:30 p.m.
Cambridge Fire Chief Tom Cahill told reporters the fire was mostly knocked down by 10:30 p.m., WHDH reported.
Soon after arriving at the church, firefighters ordered a second alarm, Warnick said. They quickly escalated the response to the fire, ordering six alarms by 7:50 p.m.
Authorities believe no one was in the church when the fire broke out, Warnick said. No civilians were injured in the fire, but Chief Cahill said a few firefighters suffered minor injuries, WHDH reported.
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“Even though this is a huge blow to us, and even though I’m filled with sadness and worry at the same time, I know that God is with us, and we will trust God to lead us forward,” Rev. Robin Lutjohann, the church’s pastor, told The Boston Globe.
Photos and videos of the fire at 311 Broadway show heavy smoke pouring out of the church’s steeple. Chief Cahill told reporters firefighters focused on keeping the church from collapsing, especially the steeple.
Cahill said much of the back of the church collapsed, but that firefighters believe the building is now stable, the news station reported. Even so, he said, firefighters will keep watch on the structure overnight.
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Cahill said all the buildings around the church have been evacuated, but the fire does not seem to have spread to them, WHDH reported. He said that around 150 firefighters responded to the fire.
Faith Lutheran Church, known for regularly holding religious services in German, held worship services earlier in the day for Easter Sunday. Chief Cahill said the church finished an afternoon service around 30 to 40 minutes before the fire started, WHDH reported.
“It’s overwhelming, of course, and I feel sad, but more than anything I feel worried about what it will take to restore the building to make it usable again,” Lutjohann told the Globe. “It’s a space that is beloved by many members of the community.”
The church is also home to the Faith Kitchen, which serves food to people in need in partnership with Temple Beth Shalom.
NBC10 Boston reported that city inspection services will later determine whether the building is a total loss.
“It is devastating,” Diane Garner, a member of Faith Lutheran Church for 20 years, told WBZ-TV. “We’re not going to have a church.”
Lutjohann told the news station he is promising members of the church that it will continue on. In the meantime, he said, he’s asking them to have faith.
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“It has housed and fed the homeless, it has been a place of worship for a number of communities for over a century,” he told WBZ-TV. “We’re going to do everything we can to preserve it for future generations.”
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