Bethany House Ministry building catches fire in Reserve Township
RESERVE TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) - For more than 50 years, the Bethany House has been serving critical services to families with afterschool and free meal programs. Now the ministry in Reserve Township is a shell of a building inside the Northview Heights community after a fire tore through it Thursday night.
Bill Gandy is heartbroken after seeing the images of the place he went to as a kid, up in flames.
"It feels like there's a part of my heart that's gone," Gandy said. "I went there for everything. There was boy scouts and there was girl scouts and stuff like that."
The Bethany House started to offer a variety of programs for children back in the 1960s. Gandy used to go there in the 70s, growing up in Northview Heights, where he said they played games like chess, ate meals, and put on plays.
Gandy said all of the kids in the community went there.
"They really cared about the neighborhood," Gandy said.
Throughout the years, the United Methodist Church Union ran the facility on Chicago Street, along with a preschool next door, which together they call the Bridge.
To this day, they were still offering free meals, educational programs, and a summer camp.
Rev. Larry Homitsky is the president of the church union.
"During the week, usually 20 to 30 children are there for after school programs, special classes for dance and music, for drumming," Homitsky said.
Thankfully, no one was hurt in the fire, and it didn't spread to any other structures, but Homitsky is feeling heavy.
"You get a little emotional because you have put so much effort into the facility to help it be a place that's safe and a place that's secure for the children in that community that have a real need," Homitsky said.
He said the center had been a lifeline for children, and that they'll find a way to keep serving them.
"We're not going to give up," Homitsky said. "We'll be providing the opportunities for people to give and to see how we can recreate something that may even be better for the future."
"I hope it's able to come back because the community needs all the help it could get," Gandy said.
A cause remains under investigation by the Allegheny County fire marshal.
Firefighters battled the fire Thursday night at Bethany House Ministry, fire crews could be seen pouring water on the roof and some have gone inside second-floor windows in an effort to battle the fire from inside the building.
No injuries or entrapments have been reported.
