Flames swallow First Congregational Church in Spencer

SPENCER - Flames tore through the First Congregational Church of Spencer on Main Street Friday, a structure that dates to the 1860s.

Crews from Spencer and surrounding communities converged on the church about 3 p.m. Soon, fire equipment was being cleared from the immediate area as fears of a steeple collapse intensified. Eventually, after the steeple was enveloped by flames, it toppled to the ground, left of the church.

Spencer Fire Chief Robert P. Parsons said it has been confirmed that the cause of the six-alarm fire that destroyed the church was a lightning strike.

“It has been confirmed to be lightning,” Parsons said Saturday morning. “We had a police officer that was doing a detail that he said he saw the church get struck by lightning. I just got another woman call me say she was outside with her kids and saw it get struck by lightning. We had two other witnesses there yesterday (Friday) that we spoke to in the marshal’s office that they saw lightning…Yes, it was lightning.”

The Rev. Bruce MacLeod, who took over as the church's pastor in February and watched it burn from across Main Street, thought of the church's full pipe organ, its pantry and its parishioners.

"The most value for it is in terms of people's connection to it," said MacLeod. "Life events happen here - weddings, funerals, baptisms."

MacLeod said a baptism scheduled for Sunday, for a family connected to the church for generations, will happen somewhere else.

"It's going to be tough on them," said MacLeod.

The church, at 207 Main St., has a long history in town. The congregation dates to 1743. The current church was built in 1863 after fire destroyed the previous building a year earlier. The current church was expanded in the 1960s.

The church became the First Congregational Church of Spencer, United Church of Christ after a merger in 1968.

There were reports of lightning in the area. Pete Bouchard, meteorologist for NBC Boston, said the storm that went over Spencer about 2:30 p.m. had "plenty of lightning."

By 5 p.m., with the heaviest flames knocked down, firefighters on tower ladders were dousing the shell of the church from above.

Hundreds of residents watched from different corners as firefighters battled the fire. Some looked on from Old Spencer Cemetery.

Elaine Miller, a Spencer resident who was baptized at the First Congregational Church in the 1950s, watched with poignance beside her husband as the building burned.

"Oh, it's awful," said Miller. "It's a big loss."

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This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Flames swallow First Congregational Church in Spencer