CURSED CHURCH
Gutted by 2nd blaze in 11 yrs.
A raging fire reduced a historic Brooklyn church to a charred, smoldering shell early Thursday — as a nearby building owned by the illfated house of worship was still being rebuilt from a 2007 blaze.
The Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Sheepshead Bay went up in smoke around 12:30 a.m., drawing about 140 firefighters to battle the flames and leaving locals wondering why the church repeatedly has incurred burning wrath.
“It’s eerie [that] God’s house” is seemingly a tinderbox, said Andrea Yeninas, who lives next door to the church on East 23rd Street near Voorhies Avenue. “I hope it’s not God’s plan.” By the time firefighters extinguished the three-alarm blaze at about 2:15 a.m., the crucifix atop the church’s steeple was among the only recognizable remains of the church, which dates to 1895.
“We saw the flames, lots of flames, high flames,” said Ida Eisen, another block resident.
The church’s roof caved in except for a few stubborn, blackened timbers, and left the floor littered with splintered pews and ashen relics.
No one was inside the church at the time, and the cause of the fire remained under investigation late Thursday.
Congregants of Emmanuel Episcopal — founded in the late 19th century as St. Matthias Chapel to serve both white and West Indian workers at the agrarian area’s farms and racetracks, according to the church’s Web site — were devastated.
“I’ve been [coming] here since I was 7,” said Dionne Reyes, 38, who rushed to the scene from her home on Long Island. “I’ve had four children here. I was married here. This is heartbreaking.”
Thursday’s blaze gutted the church as its Parish Hall — a separate building behind the sacred space — was still being restored after it, too, was ravaged by a fire in May 2007.
“This is absolutely worse than the last fire,” said Reyes. “There are no words. It’s a series of unfortunate events that just keep happening.”