“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Petersburg resident Becky Knight, as a Thursday fire caved in a local church's roof and its spire buckled under the heat of the flames.
Don Koenigs has attended St. Catherine of Siena for over 40 years. He was one of just two parishioners at midday Mass on Thursday.
“The smoke was heading in a southwesterly direction,” said Ayriss. “So we evacuated everybody in the nearby houses. We also evacuated the Children’s Center because it was there [were] actually children in the school.” “I’m sad for the community,” said Ed Tagaban. “It’s gonna be tough on all the parishioners there and stuff so they’re gonna go through they’re gonna need a lot of community support a lot of help.”“It’s so heartbreaking,” said Jose. “So heartbreaking. But we will survive. That’s our hope. And I want to thank all the fire department works they are working hard to control this fire.”
The Petersburg Fire Department has to rely on volunteers — many, like Norheim, with full-time jobs. Department spokesperson Dave Berg said that means when a massive fire like this happens — the worst he’s seen in a quarter century — they can find themselves with just a skeleton crew. As the afternoon turned to evening, the flames died down but refused to die out. Four-inch-thick wooden beams, tightly layered on the roof of the sanctuary, blocked the hoses from extinguishing the flames smoldering underneath. And the attic of the fellowship was just as hard to access. So the chainsaws came out to carve up chunks of timber to allow for a way for the water to get in.
The congregation hoped to assemble for weekend Mass in the grotto next to the burnt-out church, but they didn’t yet know what can be salvaged from inside. As the parishioners left the gymnasium, they stopped to watch the firefighters still battling the stubborn flames burning in the church roof. Berg says the outlook for the building isn’t good.
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