‘This was my world’
Wakefield mourns loss of church in 7-alarm inferno
A day after a lighting bolt apparently struck the First Baptist Church, setting it ablaze, shocked Wakefield residents grieved the loss of the historic icon that marked their lives and their community.
Black embers from the church at 8 Lafayette St. lay scattered across the town common.
Dorothy Lindon, 71, picked up two pieces of char and put them in her pocket. For her, it was bits of her childhood.
“This was my world. This was my social life,” Lindon told the Herald.
Lindon drove from Milford, N.H., yesterday morning to see the remains of the church where she was baptized and married in 1969.
She remembered ringing the church bell as a junior at Wakefield High School and singing as part of the church choir.
“I woke up this morning in tears,” Lindon said. “I was in shock.”
The Wakefield Fire Department continued to work to knock down the blackened steeple bit by bit before it came crashing down hours after the sevenalarm fire ravaged the building for three hours Tuesday night. The inferno called for more than 100 firefighters from over 20 fire departments to dump several million gallons of water onto the structure.
A lightning strike likely caused the 150-foot steeple to catch fire, rendering the building a total loss with millions of dollars in damages, Wakefield Fire Chief Michael Sullivan said.
“When a building like this catches fire, it is very difficult to extinguish,” Sullivan said yesterday. “I knew we weren’t going to be able to save the building.”
“It was my second home,” said Marsha Carter, 72, a treasurer at the church. “I’ve come here since I was 2. It’s been such a major part of my life. I saw the steeple completely engulfed. I said it would never survive. I felt numb.”
An old E. and G.G. Hook pipe organ from 1872 was also lost in the fire.
Tears welled in Eileen D’Entremont’s eyes as she watched fire crews take apart the building where her now adult son, Christopher, got the schooling he needed as a boy with special needs.
The preschool, Tall Spire, which currently has 40 students, was also lost.
“I had a special needs son who went to preschool here,” D’Entremont said. “No place would take him. They did everything humanly possible for him. They cherished every child. When someone reaches out like they did, you know you’ll never forget them.”
Community members say the church — located in the town center since 1872 — held a special place in their hearts regardless of whether they worshipped there.
Wakefield Town Administrator Stephen Mayo told the Herald his office is resolved to help in the church’s rebuilding.
“We’d love to see it rebuilt,” Mayo said. “We are all in to help. It’s an icon in this town.”
“Not everyone is a Baptist, but there is a huge sense of loss,” said Andrew McRae, 60. “At night, they’d light up the steeple with lights at Christmas. You could see from all over town. It was such a part of town. It’s so sad.”
Interim Pastor Norman Bendroth said the church community planned an emergency meeting last night to plan the future of the congregation, which has about 120 members. So far, other churches in the interfaith community has offered space for the Baptist church to worship on Sundays for the next couple of months.
“We’re reeling,” Bendroth said. “It’s so fresh, so raw. The whole town has been sucker-punched. I saw the fireball in the sky. I just gasped. I knew how heartbreaking it would be.”