Historic Beaver County church catches fire
OHIOVILLE, Pa. (KDKA) — One of the oldest churches in Beaver County caught on fire Friday morning.
Ohioville Fire Chief Mike Secchiutti said they got the call around 9:45 a.m. for smoke inside the New Salem Presbyterian Church.
"Crews saw smoke coming from the eaves of the church. We initiated that fire attack, found some fire in the basement, fire extended to the attic," Secchiutti said.
"There's a lot of hurt right now, a lot of history, a lot of memories, a lot of families that grew up here," said Pastor Jeff Marquis.
Marquis said the church was established in 1797.
"Matter of fact, one of my grandfathers was the first pastor here," Marquis said.
Marquis said he's been the pastor since 2000.
"The first thing that comes to my thought is that the church is still standing. It's not the church that burned down, but it was a building to burn down, and the church is still here," Marquis said.
Secchiutti said the cold and water supply were a challenge as they continued to work to put out hotspots nearly 8 hours after it started.
Firefighters were able to salvage some items from inside, including what appeared to be choir robes and hymnal books.
"We have a bench over that we pulled away from the building, but he was a fellow that had Down syndrome for years, and he impacted our church," Marquis said.
But Marquis said it's not the material things that matter but the lives of those who worshipped at the church. Luckily, no injuries were reported.
"The Lord always has a plan and you take a look at his history of the church, he's always, we're always on a journey, and so, we're on a journey, and we're gonna be looking for direction," Marquis said.
"Things will always be OK, they'll just be different," Marquis said.
The pastor told KDKA-TV they've already found another place to worship this Sunday while they work to figure out what's next.
The fire chief said so far, there's no word on what started the fire.
