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Priest, parishioners vow recovery from church fire
St. Francis de Sales damaged in blaze Friday afternoon
Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by EMILY BARNES
Sid Marcus, Latin Mass coordinator at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, takes pictures inside the church after the building was damaged by a fire Friday in Benedict.
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Thick smoke and flames erupted in a Benedict church Friday afternoon during a two-alarm fire that resulted in widespread soot and water damage, a broken window and a hole in the floor of the 85-year-old building.
A furnace malfunction in the basement at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church might have sparked the blaze, which was discovered when someone noticed thick smoke coming through the building's roof and chimney, according to the Rev. Saverio Vitturino.
However, the cause of the fire is still being investigated, Vitturino said.
Diane Dean said her daughter, Beverly, spotted the burning a little after 2 p.m. and asked her mother to call in the emergency.
"There was heavy smoke coming out of every opening, all the eaves and the steeple," said Dean, who attends St. Francis de Sales.
When firefighters responded, the dense smoke prevented them from finding the blaze, so rescue workers issued a second alarm, said Lt. Billy White of the Benedict Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad.
To save the structure, the firefighters broke through the church floor near the altar and doused the flames coming from the basement.
Members of volunteer fire departments from four counties, including Benedict, Huntingtown, Prince Frederick, Hughesville, Waldorf, La Plata, Mechanicsville, Brandywine and Baden companies, battled the blaze, White said.
No one was injured in the fire, and much of the structure was saved, but the stucco church will likely be closed for some time for repairs, according to a press release from Gibbs.
"All this we can repair and wash and scrub and move on," Vitturino said. "We have a small congregation; about 150 families go here. All very, very wonderful people who bond together quite well in an emergency."
For now, the church will celebrate Mass in the parish hall. Church members helped move and clean the soot from chalices and linens so the congregation could meet as usual Saturday evening, said Rose Stublarec, who began attending St. Francis de Sales in 1949.
On Friday, Stublarec walked to scene of the fire, where rescue workers were fighting to put out the blaze.
"I started to panic and weep because it's our church, where we've held our baptisms, marriages and confirmations. It's part of our life," she said.
Her husband, Ray Stublarec, was also at the church during the fire and said it was difficult to see the "quaint little church" damaged.
"It's just a terrible shock," he said.
However, the couple said that they are hopeful the church can be restored and returned to normal, adding they are thankful that firefighters were able to save so much of the structure.
According to the release from Gibbs, St. Francis de Sales was built in 1924 after the original church building was destroyed in a fire.
