Firefighters remove cross after lightning strikes church
Tom Martin made a phone call after he spotted trouble over 50 feet in the air.
“I just did my duty to the church,” said Martin, funeral director at the Martin Funeral Home and a St. Peter's Church parishioner. “Lightning strikes where it wants to strike.”
That is when the Butler Township Volunteer Fire District sprang into action Saturday evening to retrieve the cross from the steeple at St. Fidelis Catholic parish's Lyndora site, the former Saint Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church. The call came in about 3:30 p.m. to dispatch crews to the church at 301 Penn Ave. because of a lightning strike, said Toby Wehr, Butler Township Volunteer Fire District chief.
“Lighting had struck the steeple and caused extensive damage,” Wehr said.
His crew used a thermal imaging camera to assess the building's interior because they did not have immediate access, he said. The Butler City Fire Department also assisted.
When a neighbor brought a key to the church, Wehr determined there was no fire inside, he said. No one was injured in the incident, said the Rev. Kevin Fazio, the administrator for the Butler Area Catholic Parishes.However, the cross was damaged and at risk of falling down, Fazio said.After Wehr's crew had returned to the station, he got a call hours later from Martin to see if they could use the ladder truck to check the stability of the cross atop the steeple, Wehr said.“I rounded up a crew to take our ladder truck back up to the church and assist to get the cross off the steeple,” he said.About 70 feet from ground level, Wehr's crew brought the cross, which was not heavy, down, he said.Martin, who was also a firefighter for years, thanked the fire department for its assistance.
The parish is part of the Butler Area Catholic Parishes grouping that also includes St. Andrew, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Paul and St. Peter. The St. Fidelis Church has two campuses, one in Lyndora and one in Meridian. The Lyndora campus is no longer used for weekend or daily Masses. However, it can be used for baptisms, weddings or funerals, but those requests are few.Currently, insurance and damage control are working with Lou Grenci, the director of business and property management for Butler Area Catholic Parishes, to assess the situation and figure out how to proceed, he said.Fazio said he hopes to know more about the parish's situation sometime this week. He offered thanks to the township's fire department for its response to the lightning strike. He also thanked Martin for working with the firefighters to remove the cross from the steeple.Wehr's department has had requests similar to this to offer their assistance, said Wehr, who has been with the department for 32 years. “We're very community driven,” he said. “When someone is in need like that, we will do it.”
