The First Congregational Church in Spencer, Massachusetts burned down Friday. The building dated back to 1863 while the congregation there ultimately dates to 1743.
When firefighters arrived at around 3 p.m. Friday, the flames and smoke had not yet become visible outside but found smoke inside the steeple upon entering the church.
The building, a second iteration of the church built after a New Year’s Day fire in 1862 destroyed the original structure, and quickly fed the fire, which erupted into a six-alarm inferno.
Video on social media shows the burning steeple topple, crash, and knock down a section of one of the church’s walls.
#Breaking
First Congregational Church in Spencer is on fire 🔥 pic.twitter.com/tGsxzZITfB— RawNews1st (@Raw_News1st) June 2, 2023
The roof of the church collapsed, prompting an evacuation from houses nearby. Witnesses to the conflagration were horrified.
“The top of the building just came crashing down. It was terrible. There were people crying, it was really, really bad,” nearby resident Krystal Sanchez told WBTS-TV.
Investigators determined by Saturday that lightning sparked the blaze.
“It has been confirmed to be lightning. 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 to say she was outside with her kids and saw it get struck by lightning. … Yes, it was lightning,” Spencer Fire Chief Robert Parsons told the Telegram & Gazette newspaper.
No one was in the building at the time, but the 30-member United Church of Christ congregation is now without its spiritual home.
“People are deeply attached, so it’s going to be really hard for folks to figure out what comes next,” Rev. Bruce McLeod, who began leading the congregation as pastor in February, told WBZ-TV.