Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:

Question: In Asheville, the old downtown churches are chockablock with wood that dates back a century or more. What does the city fire marshal recommend as regular maintenance in preserving this stock? All have distinctive architecture, adding beauty and dignity to a downtown acclaimed for its architecture, before City Hall started approving mundane, uninspired hotel designs. First Presbyterian opened in 1884, according to its website (though it seems the sign out front says 1874.) St. Matthias Episcopal, an exquisite jewel with dramatic old wood that makes for great acoustics, opened in 1896. Central United Methodist opened in 1902, has stately, creaking stairwells, and was packed to the rafters on Easter morning (no, I'm not a member.) St. Lawrence Basilica, built by the visionary Rafael Guastavino in 1909, is a fragile Asheville landmark that's always under threat of City Hall permitting developers to bring jackhammers and blowtorches to the 'pit of despair' across Haywood Street. What does the fire marshal have to say about such cavalier disregard for common sense? Trinity Episcopal had a brand new chapel in 1910 that was destroyed by fire but immediately rebuilt and opened with soaring chestnut trusses in 1913. First Baptist, designed by the famed Douglas Ellington in 1925-27, has long been on the National Register of Historic Places.

My answer: You have to love a question about churches that works in a not-so-subtle dig about new hotel architecture. I think God would approve.

Real answer: This question came in shortly after the mid-April fire in Paris that nearly destroyed the 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral. The church's entire wooden ceiling and roof went up in flames after an accident during restoration work.

Back in Asheville, I first went to Asheville Fire Department spokeswoman Kelley Klope who offered the department's assessment.

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"Asheville Fire Department's Fire Marshal Division follows the schedule of the North Carolina Fire Prevention Code, which requires that all churches are to be inspected every three years," Klope said. "If any issues relating to the construction of the building are found, these issues are then forwarded to the city of Asheville Development Services Department."

But as the reader pointed out, these churches are old and were built under different codes.

"Buildings that met the codes at the time they were built can continue that approved use without having to meet the current code," Klope said. "If they do not undergo any major renovations or are classified as historic buildings, and barring any distinct hazard to life or property, they can remain in use under the code in which they were built."

I checked in with the above-mentioned churches' various representatives for a rundown on fire safety. I heard back from all but Central United Methodist.

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Trinity Episcopal Church Rector Scott White brought up a really interesting point.

"There are very few of these churches that went in and put in a sprinkler system," White said. "We were told that if you did that, then if the fire didn’t get us, the water would destroy the building."

In short, even a small fire could trigger a sprinkler system and result in a lot of water damage.

All the church representatives I spoke with said their buildings have passed regular fire department inspections, which is every three years for the sanctuary and annually for daily use buildings such as education or child care centers. They also all said their buildings have smoke and fire alarms, as well as all required fire extinguishers, and several have video surveillance systems. All are locked when not in use.

Now, to a quick rundown:

First Presbyterian — Located on Church Street near downtown, the brick building is a stately beauty, but alas...

"The sanctuary does not have any fire suppression," Pastor Patrick Johnson said, noting that the interior is a Gothic design. "Structurally, it's similar, but on a much smaller scale to what Notre Dame had been. There's not a ceiling and then a roof space — you can see those open timbers."

The ceiling was redone in the mid-1950s, but Johnson acknowledged that the half-century old wood is dry.

"Our sexton said if we had a problem in the sanctuary we would be really dependent on the Asheville Fire Department getting there really quickly," Johnson said.

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First Presbyterian also has a newer building constructed about 20 years ago that has a full fire suppression sprinkler system. They also have a full security system, which Johnson said has become commonplace among the churches in and around downtown.

"We’ve experienced a lot of security pressures," Johnson said. "A lot of people camp around the property. We find a lot of needles and things like that."

Basilica of St. Lawrence — Famed architect and builder Rafael Guastavino designed the church with fellow architect R.S. Smith. Of Spanish origin, Guastavino came to Asheville in the mid-1890s to work on the Biltmore House, bringing with him a traditional Spanish building technique utilizing interlocking tiles and mortar.

"In St. Lawrence, every horizontal surface in the building is made of this combination of tile and mortar," the church's history states.

Finished in 1909, the building is pretty much fireproof, but it does have a fire alarm system.

Bud Hansbury, curator and maintenance director at St. Lawrence, pointed out that the building company was literally called, "Guastavino & Sons Fireproof Building Co."

"That's what gave him his claim to fame," Hansbury said.

"As far as as the Basilica, the only thing that could really burn are our candles, the pews and any wood items inside," Hansbury continued. "Once that burned, there would would be a suppression of the fire because it couldn’t go floor to floor after that. It’s all tile or rock."

The church has had a minor fire, though, from a vandal. The firebug entered a side area where the church has a sort of "micro-museum," as Hansbury calls it, which includes a small box for donations. There was also an area for lighting votive candles with matches.

"Someone squeezed accelerant down there and threw match down in it," Hansbury said. "So we got rid of the matches. Now we use a lighter that extinguishes quickly."

St. Matthias Episcopal — Built from 1894-96, this church on Dundee Street just off South Charlotte Street, does have a ceiling that is "very much akin to what was found in Paris," Pastor Jerry Prickett said.

"In terms of what we have as far as fire protection, we do have a location close by the fire department," Prickett said. "We're also close to the water source."

The church does not have a sprinkler system.

Trinity Episcopal — Also located on Church Street, Trinity's original building burned to the ground in 1910, White, the rector, noted. The church "does have a complete fire alarm system throughout the building," but as previously stated has no sprinklers.

First Baptist Church — The Woodfin Street church is a downtown icon, with its Terra Cotta roof tiles designed to look in part like a green patina. It's also an outlier in another way.

"It is fully sprinklered, or about 80 percent of the building is fully sprinklered," said Wally Davids, operations and finance manager. "There's a children’s building built in the early '70s, and that preceded the sprinkler system. The reason the other part of the building has it is because we did a major renovation about 10 years ago, and with that you have to bring everything you touch back up to current code."

They did not renovate the children's building but did do the rest.

"The sanctuary part of it is sprinklered," Davids said. "Everything around that sanctuary is sprinklered. On the sanctuary itself, it has Terra Cotta tile and brick on the outside, and sort of a stucco finish on the inside, a mixture that was put on over a metal screen. Structurally there’s very little wood in it."

This is the opinion of John Boyle. To submit a question, contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com