Editor's note: This story has been updated from the original online version.
By Travis Mounts
Authorities are still trying to determine the cause of a Feb. 3 fire that destroyed a 100-year-old altar and caused significant smoke damage to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Ost, located in southeast Reno County just east of Cheney Lake.
The fire was discovered by the parish priest, the Rev. Ivan Eck, around 5:15 p.m. Wednesday. He discovered a wall of smoke as he opened a door to the church. Fire crews from Haven, Cheney and Pretty Prairie responded in about 15 minutes and it took roughly 30 minutes to contain the fire.
“They don’t know,” Eck said when asked about the cause of the fire last week on Thursday. “They don’t know.”
But on Tuesday of this week, Eck indicated the fire may have been intentionally set.
“It looks suspicious,” he said. “That’s all they’re saying.”
The fire destroyed the St. Joseph side altar and damaged the floor and walls near the altar, and there was smoke and soot damage throughout the church.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is continuing to investigate, said Eck. Investigators with the Hutchinson Fire Department also have been involved. Early on, it appeared that the fire was not electrical nor was it related to the church’s furnace.
It appears no one was in the church at the time of the fire, although many families were getting ready to arrive for confirmation rehearsal. Confirmation of 65 high school students went on as scheduled Thursday night, with the Mass held in the church hall next door. The confirmation candidates represented eight high schools including Garden Plain, Cheney, Andale, Haven, Kingman, Pretty Prairie, Bishop Carroll and Hutchinson Trinity.
Bishop Michael Jackels of the Wichita diocese was in attendance.
One early television report cited candles as the cause of the fire, but that report was incorrect. There were votive candles located near the altar, but they were intact and there were no lit candles on the altar itself.
These candles were located near the altar that burned but were not the cause of the fire.
Parishioner Shanna Henry said she first heard about the fire when her son, Gus, received a Facebook message from a friend.
“We were rushing home from school” to eat and get ready for confirmation practice, she said. She then heard a television news report about at home.
There was some activity in the church on Thursday afternoon as insurance adjusters, representatives from a restoration company and news reporters and photographers filtered in and out of the church.
Smoke damage was apparent throughout the church. Soot covered surfaces all the way at the other end of the building, ash blanketed the wooden pews and smoke stains could be seen all over the walls and ceiling. The smell of smoke was still very strong nearly 24 hours after the fire.
Teachers from St. Joseph Catholic School next door brought their classes over one by one to show students the damage. They stood up against yellow police tape asking questions. One lesson to the children was that the church is made up of the people, not the building, so that the church will go on despite the fire.
The Virgin Mary side altar is a twin of the St. Joseph altar that was destroyed in the fire. The two altars were identical.
The Virgin Mary side altar on the church’s east side is a twin of the St. Joseph altar that was destroyed in the fire. The two altars were identical.
Eck said it was too early to tell how long the parish will be out of its church building. He said that all church activities, including weekend Masses, will take place as normally scheduled in the church hall, located on the east side of the church. Eck told parishioners at weekend Masses they had much to be thankful for.
“It wasn’t an earthquake or a hurricane. No one was hurt and the building is still standing,” he said. “We just need to practice patients. That’s how you learn patience – you have to practice it.”
A lot of history was lost with the altar, although the history with the parish was relatively short. The altar that burned and six others in the church were first installed in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Conception, Mo., in 1891. The altars came to St. Joseph parish in 1999. The church in Ost was completed in 1913.
See additional photos
|
