Lana Bellamy

lBellamy@th-record.com

CITY OF NEWBURGH – J. Edward Lewis, who pastors the Calvary Presbyterian Church, believes things happen for a reason, including a fire that severely damaged the church’s fellowship hall early Thursday morning.

“Fire can be a tool to access survival in ways we would not know if we did not have it,” Lewis said outside the church Thursday afternoon. “Historically in the Bible, fire is a purifier. So, I’m thinking right now, today, something needs to be cleansed in our community.”

Lewis was awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call telling him his historic, 160-year-old church building was on fire.

He was given few details over the phone and feared the worst when he arrived at 120 South St.

“When we’ve been talking about Notre Dame (cathedral) and other historic places, I immediately thought, ‘Oh my God, our worst fears have arrived,’” Lewis said. “I’m thinking about the sanctuary, which is a tinder box.”

The city’s firefighters felt the same.

“Once the fire gets in there (the sanctuary), it’s almost impossible to put it out,” said city fire Chief Bill Horton, referring to the wide-open space provided by the sanctuary’s tall ceilings and the flammable wooden roof, pews, pew cushions, paper books and other combustible materials.

Firefighters arrived at the church at 12:16 a.m., within a minute of the first alert, and prioritized containing the flames to the fellowship hall where it is believed to have started.

The fire was out in about an hour, Horton said. No injuries were reported.

Horton said the fellowship hall is repairable.

“I don’t know whether it’s about age or faith or both, but this does not seem insurmountable,” Lewis said. “This is bad, but it could be worse.”

Sue Young, who has attended services at Calvary Presbyterian since 1985 and directs the handbell choir, said she was devastated when she first saw the charred fellowship hall early Thursday morning.

The floor was covered in squishy, water-logged ceiling tiles. Plastic foldable tables and a stained-glass window near a recital stage laid melted and twisted. Chairs, a bookcase full of books, rummage sale donations, and a piano were completely blackened, except for the piano’s ivory keys. A person could smell the smoke from a block away.

“Everything’s gone,” she remembered thinking at the time. “It was devastating. But then I was like, ‘I have got to see the sanctuary,’ and ta-da. It was perfect.”

Young said the fellowship hall was added onto the church in the mid-1900s, so the three-foot thick, stone wall between the hall from the chapel could have acted as a firebreak.

Relieved the sanctuary was saved, Young’s next concern was for her choir bells.

“I’m not sure who did this,” she said, “but they had the wherewithal to cover the cabinet where the bells were kept with a huge waterproof, fireproof tarp. ... They’re not damaged at all.”

The fire department received its earliest alerts from a police officer on patrol and a passerby who pulled the alarm in a firebox at the intersection of Liberty and South streets.

The cause of the two-alarm fire was unknown as of Thursday afternoon.

About 60 firefighters from Newburgh, Castle Point, Cronomer Valley, West Point, Stewart Air National Guard and Beacon battled the fire, Horton said.

lbellamy@th-record.com

Church services go on

Regular 9 a.m. Sunday services for Calvary congregants will be held across the street at Best Temple Church of God In Christ, located at 111 South St.

To donate to Calvary Presbyterian Church’s recovery, go to calvarypresbychurch.org or call the church at 845-562-8730.