02 Jun More Info on the Fire at Jerusalem Chapel

Here is some more information regarding the fire that struck Jerusalem Chapel UB on Thursday, May 29. Jerusalem Chapel is a congregation with an attendance of 375 located near Churchville, Va.

• The oldest part of the church, including the sanctuary and Sunday school area, is what burned. Firefighters took a stand to protect the new sanctuary at a firewall between it and the already-engulfed oldest portion of the structure. The new sanctuary was built in 1990.
• Jerusalem Chapel held its usual two morning worship services on the Sunday after the fire, but Sunday school was canceled. Projected on a screen above the pulpit were the words: “We praise God that we are able to worship today in this sanctuary.”
• Congregation members Mitch Acord and Craig Smith were praying in the church about 5:30 a.m.–a regular ritual–when they heard a crackle. When they investigated and smelled smoke, they called the fire department.
• At the time of the fire, Pastor Dennis and Annette Sites were returning from Alaska, where a daughter has been serving as a missionary. They learned about the fire from their daughter Tabitha, back in Virginia, who called them in Denver.
• The damage is estimated at $750,000. The church is insured for $2 million.
• Investigators pinpointed decades-old wiring as the cause. They think a wire running from underneath a floorboard to the attic burned through its coating, and shorted after brushing up against a nail or another wire.
• The church dates back to around 1902, though a church has occupied that site since the 1850s.