[News] East Village Fire Damages 128-Year-Old Church

[_Happy boy]

The fire tore through a vacant building early Saturday morning and then spread to Middle Collegiate Church on Second Avenue. Four firefighters had minor injuries.

The fire started in a vacant building early Saturday and spread to the 128-year-old Middle Collegiate Church next door, causing significant damage.CreditCredit...Jeenah Moon for The New York Times
By Maria Cramer and Edgar Sandoval
Dec. 5, 2020
Updated 5:16 p.m. ET
A fire in a vacant building in the East Village early Saturday morning spread to a 128-year-old church that houses the New York Liberty Bell, destroying its Gothic-style sanctuary and blowing out the Tiffany stained-glass windows that adorned the stone facade, fire and church officials said.

“I see a gutted building full of smoke,” said the Rev. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister for public theology and transformation at Middle Collegiate Church, a Reformed Protestant congregation that predates the American Revolution. “The sanctuary is gone, absolutely gone.”

ImageCongregants and East Village residents stood in the cold rain and watched, some crying and others shaking their heads in disbelief, as firefighters put out what remained of the fire.Credit...Jeenah Moon for The New York Times
The cause of the fire at the vacant building at 47 East 7th Street, which was reported at 4:48 a.m., is under investigation, officials said. Four firefighters had minor injuries, John Hodgens, an assistant fire chief, said.