PREDAWN FIRE GUTS OLD CHURCH HOUSING NEW YORK’S LIBERTY BELL

A fire in a vacant building in New York’s East Village early Saturday morning spread to a 128-year-old church that houses the New York Liberty Bell, destroying its Gothic-style sanctuary and blowing out the Tiffany stained-glass windows that adorned the stone facade, fire and church officials said.

“I see a gutted building full of smoke,” said the Rev. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister for public theology and transformation at Middle Collegiate Church, a Reformed Protestant congregation that predates the American Revolution. “The sanctuary is gone, absolutely gone.”

The cause of the fire at the vacant building, which was reported at 4:48 a.m., is under investigation, officials said. Four firefighters had minor injuries, said John Hodgens, an assistant fire chief.

The building has been vacant since February, after a smaller fire broke out. That fire was ruled an accident, Hodgens said.

Owners listed for the vacant building, which once housed a cafe, could not immediately be reached.

The fire Saturday spread to the church on Second Avenue and another building on Seventh Street, Hodgens said. That building is the site of the Women’s Prison Association, a shelter for single women coming out of prison, according to church leaders who work with the shelter.

Fire officials said they did not know the extent of the damage to the shelter but described the church as heavily damaged. “It’s going to be a difficult time for them to rebuild,” Hodgens said of the church.

On Saturday morning, congregants and East Village residents stood in the cold rain and watched, some crying and others shaking their heads in disbelief, as firefighters put out what remained of the fire.

Gwen Deely, 71, stood across the street from the church, wearing a purple Tshirt that read “Love. Period.” The statement symbolized the progressive themes of the church, which supports social justice causes like Black Lives Matter.

“It’s such a part of the neighborhood,” Deely said before pausing to cry. “It’s the fabric of the neighborhood. We will come back. We will. It’s our family. We call it our Middle family.”

The church welcomed everyone, she said, including Broadway stars and the destitute seeking help.

Middle Collegiate Church was built in 1892 and has a congregation of about 1,400 members, said the Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft, the church’s executive minister for justice, education and movement building.

Lewis, who joined Ashcraft at the scene, said all that remained of the church was its stone front and signs that read “Just Love,” the church’s motto, and “Black Lives Matter.”

Lewis said they were anxious to learn the fate of the bell, one of the oldest church bells in the country. It is about 25 years older than the cracked Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. The condition of the bell as of Saturday evening was unclear.

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