The biggest fire that Anchorage has seen in years destroyed most of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints’ chapel in South Anchorage on Thursday as church members could only stand by and watch.
Church leader Mel Nichols estimated the loss in the blaze that firefighters battled all day Thursday at $2 million at least.
The chapel is inside a tan building off Brayton Drive between Huffman and DeArmoun roads and also included a multipurpose room and classrooms . No one was in the building, said Nichols.
The temple next door, a more sacred building to church members, was untouched by the flames.
The fire took more than 12 hours to control, the fire department said. About half the firefighters on duty in the city, 60 to 70 of them, rotated in at different times during the day to fight the fire, which burned inside the roof from a place not easily reached, said Anchorage Fire Department spokesman Tom Kempton. Firefighters for the most part had to pour water on the flames from atop ladders extended above the blaze.
The fire appears to have started in the heating and ventilation room near the top of the structure, Kempton said, and the cause is believed to have been accidental. He said it was the largest, toughest fire here in recent memory.
A neighbor reported seeing smoke and flames before 4 a.m.
Nichols, who arrived about the same time as the fire trucks, said, “It was pretty obvious within the first 30 minutes this was not going to have a happy ending.”
“It looked like they were making some progress, then five minutes later the flames are everywhere again,” he said.
Neighbor Claudia Marinelli heard the fire trucks in the middle of the night. She went to see the fire about 5:30 a.m. and saw “flames shooting out of the roof,” she said.
She came to the wreckage another four times throughout the day, watching the fire’s progress and taking photos.
At midafternoon, thick gray smoke still filled the neighborhood, and firefighters were shooting streams of water onto the roof from the tops of two ladder trucks. So much water had been poured onto the structure that the air was moist, and the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility had to boost the water pressure.
Dozens of cars and trucks flowed steadily down Brayton Drive to view the fire, staying typically just long enough to take in the damage. Some took photos. At least one had a video camera. Many who came were among the church’s 1,600 members, who had heard about it through family and friends.
“This is probably the most organized religion. It’s like the military. Everybody probably knew by 7 a.m.,” said member Nancy Morris.
“It’s our beloved building,” said Amy Schaugaard, also a church member, as she stood near the destruction late Thursday.
She said she had been going to the building for 24 years, attending baptisms, basketball games, dances and missionary farewells. “It’s a very sentimental place for a lot of people.”
“I was getting teary-eyed today,” said her husband, Ryan Schaugaard.
Firefighters had to let most of the roof burn through before they could get to the flames, said Kempton.
“You almost have to peel back the roof to be able to extinguish the fire.”
The roof was a big, heavy structure, with beams overlaid by wood planks, then layers of foam insulation, more planking, plywood, then the roofing material, Kempton said.
Both firefighters and church leaders were worried that the church steeple would topple and injure someone, Kempton said, but it didn’t.
Eventually, though, the charred, burned-out roof caved in to the multipurpose room below. The big beams arching over the room were still intact, but sheetrock and blackened roofing material had plunged from the roof to the floor, said Kempton.
The fire was considered to be out by late afternoon, he said. But steam still rose from the rubble, and spectators continued to stop by the church to look at the damage.
“It’s never hit this close to home,” said Tom Gardner, a church member who came to see it. “But thankfully it wasn’t the temple. That would have been devastating for a lot of people.”
“We first saw it from the highway (in the morning) and were just stunned,” said Kirsten Stanton. She came back several hours later. “I guess you’d call it morbid curiosity.”
Classroom wings are intact, but 3 to 6 inches of water has pooled on the floors.
Nichols said the building is about 18,000 square feet. On a normal Sunday, 800 to 1,000 people use it at different times of the day.
The building was about 30 years old and is self-insured by the church, he said. The building’s value is not known, but Nichols said it would probably take a minimum of $2.5 million to replace it, not counting any demolition.
Just as the chapel was being built in 1976, a different fire gutted it. A news report at the time said the damage was estimated at $1.2 million.
Daily News reporter Rosemary Shinohara can be reached at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340. Megan Holland can be reached at mrholland@adn.com or 257-4343.
