Community rallies together after losing historic church to fire
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PRINCETON, Ind. (WEVV) — The Princeton Church stood for 130 years, and it’s now burnt to ash as fire officials are still trying to understand how the fire all started.
“Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my ministry after being a pastor for 40 years,” says Wayne Wester, the Senior Pastor of The Princeton Church.
The call came in around two on Monday afternoon, and a total of 45 firefighters battled the blaze until midnight.
Thankfully, no one was injured. for the leaders of the church they have experienced a roller coaster of emotions since receiving the devastating, initial call.
“But the most that was going through us was maybe it’s not as bad as we heard. We walked on the sidewalk down to where we turned a building and there was ours. The shock of that was pretty overwhelming,” says Wester.
Fire officials tell 44News they had to attack the flames from on top due to the interior collapsing faster than they could extinguish it.
Now, they’re just focusing on keeping the fire out entirely.
“We have a crew over there right now doing some demolition on it. They’re trying to pull some debris out so we’re able to hit the remaining hotspots,” says Captain Randy Anthis, with the Princeton Fire Territory.
The Princeton community is in disbelief as the historic building has touched the hearts of many over the last century.
“Captain Hale that was on shift yesterday grew up in that church so that was actually an advantage to us because she knew the layout so that helped us in the firefighting aspect,” says Captain Anthis.
For Pastor Wester, he has also never experienced this type of love that has embraced him and his family over the last 24 hours.
“Since yesterday, actually at the moment of the fire I was overwhelmed with grief, and then began to build hope and encouragement. Just the community that has rallied, and it hasn’t stopped. I can’t answer all of the emails, calls, and texts because we are being inundated with an amazing outpour of wondrous stories of people wanting to help,” says Pastor Wester.
The Princeton Church will host their upcoming Sunday service at the 4H Exhibit Hall, while they look for a more temporary space to continue their ministry.
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