Notre Dame blaze resurrects memories of local church conflagration
By Jason Arndt
Editor
When Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris caught fire last week, parishioners and other supporters ran into the 13th-century structure and grabbed whatever they could save as firefighters arrived to battle the blaze.
Those sights and the terror they generated, brought back memories for many Burlington residents of a 1977 blaze at Immaculate Conception St. Mary Catholic Church in the City of Burlington.
Dennis Lynch, a local attorney and longtime parish member, vividly recalls the fire in part because he had just returned to Burlington after finishing law school.
“I had just moved back to Burlington and it was a Saturday night,” said Lynch, as he remembered having family and friends over for dinner on July 23.
The following day, Lynch heard multiple alarms, and saw people rush to St. Mary Church, at 108 McHenry Street, to find ways to save historic relics and other sacred icons.
“The fire alarm went out and some of the people who lived in the area ran into the church and grabbed important items, just like Notre Dame in Paris,” Lynch said. “They got quite a bit of items out of there.”
Like the blaze at Notre Dame Cathedral, the local fire nearly 42 years ago had some parallels, including where the fire started.
“The steeple caught on fire and that crashed down. It didn’t hurt anybody,” Lynch said.
A church gutted
According to the July 25, 1977, edition of the Standard Press, the fire that gutted the historic structure – which opened in 1891 – destroyed the church roof and upper section of the steeple, leaving nothing but blackened beams over the worship area.
The steeple’s three bells came down, one crashing through to the basement, and the three altars were also destroyed.
“By the time the fire was gone, all that was standing were the walls and the support for the steeple,” Lynch remembered.
The Standard Press article indicates the church’s much-prized Schaefer organ, insured at $85,000, was a total loss.
Meanwhile, according to parishioner Jim Weis, who oversaw the claim for Mays Insurance, the church’s insurer covered about $2.3 million of the total claim.
On Tuesday, Weis, who is now retired, said the fire was one of the largest claims Mays Insurance handled.
“Our agency was 100 years old this past fall and that was the largest single claim that we ever had,” he recalled. “We were very fortunate to have that blanket coverage.”
Weis explained the coverage was based on the total value of the church property – which included several buildings. Had it been based on the individual buildings alone, it would have not provided sufficient coverage.
To read the entire story – including how the church’s pastor at the time believed the blaze helped strengthen the faith of his parishioners – see the April 25 edition of the Burlington Standard Press.
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