Home Care In Spencer, MA

SPENCER, Mass. - All that is left of the First Congregational Church in Spencer is pictures, videos and memories.

Mary Baker-Wood is the town historian in Spencer. Part of her job is identifying what historic buildings in town are at-risk.

"That church was never on the radar, because the congregation, although it was smaller, were conscientious stewards of that building," she said.

That's why it was so shocking when the church erupted in flames a week ago following a lightning strike. The church today is a total loss. The fire took down the iconic white building and almost everything inside with it.

"Among the things they lost, was a very beautiful pipe organ," Baker-Wood said. "One of the first people to contact me that Friday night was someone from a national organ database."

Baker-Wood, a life-long Spencer resident, will tell you this church was much more than just a building. It meant something to almost everyone in town.

"Buildings aren't just physical presences, they live in people's hearts," she said. "Even if people didn't attend the church, people still feel it is part of their town and we've lost it."

The church was used for more than just religious services. They sponsored town-wide clean up days, held weddings, funerals and Girl Scout meetings. It was a place where everyone was welcome.

"To the congregation, it was their home, they treasured it," Baker-Wood said. "The people's whose hearts are most touched by this are the people who lost their church, but the community lost it too."

Baker-Wood said you can never recreate a building with that much history, but she hopes the plan is to remember and honor the church in some way.

"You can never replicate that," she said. "As a historian, it needs to be remembered in some way. Whether the congregation choses to use that to rebuild in some form, or to create some sort of town facility. I have confidence that they will engage people and this is a congregation that is listening to people in town"

The original building was built in 1743, before Spencer was even its own town. It was still a part of Leicester at that point. A new building was built in 1863, after a fire destroyed it the year before.

A raging fire destroyed the historic First Congregational Church on Main Street in Spencer Friday afternoon leaving stunned Spencer residents lining the street, many capturing the last moments of the church’s existence on cell phones as orange flames consumed the building.

Firefighters were called to the church at 207 Main Street shortly after 3 p.m. after being alerted that the fire alarm was going off, Police Chief Michael Befford said.

Initially, there was no sign of a fire visible from the outside of the building and firefighters entered the church where they discovered flames in the attic and the steeple, Southbridge Fire Chief Paul Nornandin said. They began bringing hoses into the building.

But the fire quickly spread, engulfing the steeple and racing along the roofline, sending firefighters back outside where they mounted an exterior attack, calling for mutual aid from at least a half dozen nearby towns.

Normandin took charge at the scene, as Spencer’s Fire Chief Robert P. Parsons raced back to town from his vacation in Maine.

Firefighters scrambled to move four fire trucks, which had initially responded and were directly in front of the church, as it became evident that the steeple was in danger of collapsing.

About 45 minutes after Normandin arrived, the steeple collapsed. It crashed down on the west side of the building as residents who’d been evacuated from the Senior Living at Prouty complex next door watched, stunned.

“It was a large volume of fire,” Normandin said. “We immediately went to a third, fourth and fifth alarm.”

Smoke from the blaze could be seen for miles and heat from the fire could be felt 75 yards away.

Residents recalled being married in the church which housed an enormous pipe organ and was home to The Economy Shop, a thrift store that has been a long-time staple of the community. There were classrooms and meeting rooms inside, as well.

The Rev. Bruce MacLeod, the interim pastor, said that a thunderstorm had moved through the area shortly before the fire and he wondered if that might have caused the blaze.

But fire officials, including state Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey who was at the scene, said a thorough investigation will take place before a cause is determined.

The fire investigation unit from Mass. Fire District 7 was at the church and beginning their work even as the fire burned.

The church is rich in history and was originally built in 1740 as a meeting house. It burned in 1862 and was rebuilt just over a year later, serving 600 worshippers in 1863, according to the Historical Marker Database.

Normandin and Parsons placed the amount of the damage in the millions. Parsons wondered if such a grand structure could ever be rebuilt.

As the flames burst through the roof of the single-story section of the church, Fire Department Chaplains from other towns began arriving.

Both the Lunenburg and Littleton Chaplains were among them.

“That was really nice to see,” Parsons said. “They were here to support us and the community in this huge loss.”

Late Friday night demolition crews were expected to tear down what remained of the church. Officials said traffic on Route 9 could be impacted into Saturday morning.

SPENCER, Mass. – Dozens of firefighters responded to a historic church in Spencer, Massachusetts, on Friday afternoon to try to save the structure from being destroyed by a fire that is believed to have been started by a lightning strike.

According to the Sterling Fire Department, crews were battling the blaze at the First Congregational United Church, which has had a presence in the community since before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Witness videos showed fire billowing out of the structure, and the roof and steeple appeared to have collapsed.

According to the congregation, the land for the church was donated by Nathaniel Cunningham, a wealthy Massachusetts merchant, during the mid-1700s, but a fire in 1862 destroyed the original structure.

The current church was built and dedicated in 1863 and has been renovated and expanded along Main Street in downtown Spencer ever since.

LIGHTNING STRIKES LIKELY CAUSE OF 3 HOUSE FIRES IN NORTHERN TEXAS

The FOX Weather Radar detected a storm with plenty of lightning moving through the heart of town about 2 p.m. EDT.

Meteorologists at the National Weather Service Office in Norton, Massachusetts, said they were not surprised to hear that lightning had possibly struck the structure and said other cloud-to-ground lightning strikes were likely during the stormy pattern.

(FOX Weather)

Local emergency management has not said if there were any injuries, but firefighters reported having to deal with extreme heat during the blaze.

Air temperatures at nearby Worcester Regional Airport climbed to nearly 90 degrees during the afternoon, triggering concerns of heat exhaustion for first responders.

DEBUNKING 7 MYTHS ABOUT LIGHTNING

According to the NWS, a structure’s height, shape and isolation are all factors in where a bolt could strike.

The antenna on the Empire State Building in New York City is struck at least 25 times a year, according to esbnyc.com.

Craig S. Semon

SPENCER – The long-standing Salvation Army Family Store & Donation Center at 120 West Main St. is no more and the owner of the property is working to get another thrift store there in its place.

“We were surprised by them suddenly leaving,” Fawaz El Khoury of PELK LLC, in Northborough, said. “We tried to renegotiate the lease with them but they just said, 'No thank you.' They sent us a notice saying no.”

The Salvation Army Family Store & Donation Center has been a thrift-store destination in town for close to 28 years, Khoury said. May 16, Khoury bought the six-acre parcel that includes the building from Raoul M. Chalifoux, trustee for EK Nominee Trust in Tolland, Connecticut, for $2 million.

Khoury said The Salvation Army was paying “a small amount” for rent and they increased it “a little bit.”

“They just decided to walk away. And we weren’t prepared for that,” Khoury said. “Unfortunately, we were renegotiating with them. We tried to work with them and they said it was not practical for them to be there anymore and they’re leaving. They left. They gave us like one week or two weeks warning.”

Khoury said he was trying to renegotiate the five-year lease agreement but the Salvation Army wanted to sign a one-year lease, which wouldn’t be practical, he said.

Capt. Jeffrey Brunelle oversees The Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center in Worcester, which also operated the thrift store in Spencer.

According to a press release, Brunelle said the first priority of The Salvation Army Family Thrift Store in Spencer was to raise funds to continue offering rehabilitation programs to people in need at no-cost, but, due to “current circumstances,” it made supporting these programs through this store impossible.

“The decision to close the store was not made lightly,” Brunelle said. “But, after much review, it seems to be the most responsible choice.”

Despite closing down shop at its Spencer location, The Salvation Army stresses that assistance for those who struggle with alcohol and substance abuse, and a variety of other life issues will continue to be available through their Adult Rehabilitation Center at 72 Cambridge St., Worcester.

Furthermore, a full range of services will still be provided at their Worcester Citadel, 640 Main St., Worcester.

Donors and shoppers will still be able to support The Salvation Army’s work at other area Salvation Army Family Stores, including locations in Worcester, Webster, Gardner and Fitchburg.

“The Thrift Store did provide great value to many families in need,” Brunelle said. “Although the store is leaving, The Salvation Army isn’t going anywhere. We’re still absolutely committed to meeting needs by serving this community.”

Brunelle said every effort is being made to refer employees of the Spencer store to open positions at other Salvation Army centers.

The Salvation Army Family Store & Donation Center is not the first thrift store to close in Spencer. On June 2, the historic First Congregational Church, which was the home of a popular thrift store, was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.

Khoury said he’s working to secure a deal with two different prospective tenants, but that it’s too early to discuss who the interested parties are.

“One is coming in next week to look at it and see if we’re going to reopen it as a thrift store as well,” Khoury said. “We’re going to make sure it’s high-quality goods.”

The interior of the store is being repainted and cleaned up for the next prospective tenant, Khoury said.

Khoury said they’re looking at bringing in another thrift store because that’s the right thing to do for the community.

“We’ve talked to a couple local real estate agents to see if they had anybody (retail businesses) but they said it would take eight to nine months to get any retailers there,” Khoury said. “That’s why we decided, 'No, we’re going to move on fast and we going to put in another thrift store because there has been one in the community for so many years.' So we were like to serve the community as well and reopen another thrift store, God willing.”

AMHERST, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Two communities in western and central Massachusetts are rallying together after fires caused by lightning destroyed both J & J Farms in Amherst and the First Congregational Church of Spencer.

In the aftermath of the destruction, J & J Farms is starting the recovery effort. Meanwhile, the First Congregational Church of Spencer is still assessing the damages. Lightning strikes on June 2nd caused the pair of fires, leaving both structures in charred piles of wood and ash.

The First Congregational Church of Spencer is no stranger to this kind of destruction. The original church that was built in the 1740s also burned to the ground in 1862. A new church was built in 1863 and stood in Spencer for 160 years until the lightning strike this last Friday.

Reverend Bruce MacLeod told Western Mass News that he and his congregation are still assessing the damages, saying in part:

“We want to continue to be involved in the community and have a ministry in Spencer. What shape that will take and how we’ll do that has yet to be figured out. As to what kind of building will take place, that’s still really early in thinking about that.”

Meanwhile in Amherst, co-owner of J & J Farms Mike Waskiewicz told us that people have been showing up to lend a helping hand following Friday’s fire. In just 3 days, over $88,000 were raised for the farm on GoFundMe. Waskiewicz shared his reaction to the support he has received.

“It’s been a little overwhelming, to tell you the truth,” he said. “The support from the local neighborhood and stretching beyond, it’s just been tremendous.”

Both the church and the farm told Western Mass News that they are insured and are still awaiting word back from their insurance agencies.

Waskiewicz said that while he cleans up the damage, he still plans to run his farm stand and continue to farm vegetables that were unharmed in the blaze. He added that rebuilding their farm is in their plans, but there is still a long way to go.

“We will rebuild something,” said Waskiewicz. “We’re going to have our farm stand up and running as usual, should be around the 4th of July. As far as the rebuild, we got to discuss to see what we want, how we want to structure the rebuild, and what type of buildings, more buildings. That’s on the back burner for the time being.”

The First Congregational Church of Spencer will be holding church services at their sister church in Leicester for the foreseeable future.

If you would like to contribute to the GoFundMe in support of J & J Farms, you may do so HERE.

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