Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-11-23
rIreIn The Lutheran Church

About 9 o'clock on Saturday evening
FIRE from the heater in the Lutheran
church building nearly destroyed
+be commodious house of worship
that the Lutheran congregation own
in this town.
Wallace Fasick, the sexton, had
nlaced a fire in the heater in the cell
ar TO warm the house comfortably
for the next Sunday service
The fire was started in the heater
about 1. P. NJ, on Saturday
Shortly after s P. NJ the sexton
was in the church and fixed the
heater in the usual way for the
night. He lives close to the church
building and had scarcely seated him
self at home, when Mrs Fasick his
wife came in and said "The church
is on fire -
They each took bucket of water
and ran into the building, down the
center aisle to the heater register
where the floor was ablaze and dash
ed the water ON the fame, and then
out Of the house shouting, fire fire !
fir"
Ctzus with rush came with
the fire hose and attached them to
the water plug at the Jail.
The fire that was visible was then
raging q little front of the center of
the building in the floor, about the
hea-sr register, and from that to-
ward the north wall of the church,
but tie smoke was so dense that no
one dared to enter and there was no
elevated place from which the water
could be turned down on the fire,
and the passage between the sexton's
house and the church was SO dark
that the men dragged the hose
through with difficulty and mounted
fence along the sections property
and from there aimed the nozzle of
the hose in the direction of the fire.
The water came and when it
struck the church windows that in
teryened, the glass went in with a
bang ard jingle that added an other
unpleasant sound TO the din and
roar tll5 was mixing night hid.
eous around the building, but from
that position the best thing that the
men who were managing the hose
could DO was to aim at the ceiling
Just over the fire. The water struck
the ceiling and fell in torrents over
the fire and all surrounding parts,
perfectly sa.urating everything there,
the paw7, carpet, and floor where.the
fire RACED and held the flames below
from making much progress in
breaking through.
But with all that the fire was not
quenched.
In the darkness, along the north
wall of the church, not far from the
ground some one helping to manage
the hose encountered thick stream
of smoke coming out of n hole in
the wall, 50 dense was the smoke
that the flame that ragged inside the
cellar could not be seen through it.
"Hera is the place 'he shouted,
"to get the water on the fire"
The water was turned in there and
in less than five minutes after the
fire was out, for through that hole
the water went directly into the
focal point of the fire and on and all
around the heater.
The hole or passage through the
wall into which the water was turn
ed Is the cold air passage to the
heater.
50 thoroughly had the parts
about the heater been drenched that
on Sunday a large pool of water lay
in front of the concern in the cellar.
The water thrown from the hose
was clear and did not stain the seats
or carpet The plaster on the cell
ing was wet and damaged some, and
the paper on the walls was smoke
stained and a great hole in the floor
was burned, and other minor dam
age was done, but under "A capable
and vigorous management all dam
ages including repapering and re-
painting may be replaced within
two weeks.
1t was a narrow escape for the
Lutheran church building and had
it not been for Macedonia water the