Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504240067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Just weeks after one of Roanoke's oldest and most historic buildings rose from the ashes of economic ruin, another landmark just a block from the Hotel Roanoke went down in flames.
While many members of First Baptist Church in the Gainsboro section of Roanoke watched Saturday afternoon, flames leapt 60 and 70 feet out of the roof of the nearly 100-year-old church. Greenish smoke rolled around the spire, and cinders wafted down all over the neighborhood the church served for so many years.
Authorities would not speculate Saturday night on a cause, but police were investigating a broken window at the rear of the church as evidence of a possible break-in.
Hazel Brown, 63, was in choir practice in the new First Baptist building on the next block when the fire broke out.
"That's all I ever knew," she said, her eyes welling with tears. "I don't know any other church."
Other members echoed Brown's sentiments.
The fire began just before 5 p.m. and was through the roof within minutes, according to District Fire Chief Garry Basham.
Basham initially called for firefighters to attack the fire from outside the building, but four men went into the church to see what could be done there. Minutes later they rushed back out when a ceiling caved in. None was injured.
With the flames raging higher, onlookers across the street, a full 50 yards away, began to wince from the blast of heat from the fire. Soon, flames licking at the steeple took hold, and the spire crashed into the roof below.
Cinders drifting down Gilmer Avenue set fire to three houses and some yards. Neighbors dowsed the grass fires, and firefighters quickly contained two of the house fires.
However, the house at 42 Gilmer Ave., which was moved from Wells Avenue last summer as part of the Hotel Roanoke renovation, was badly damaged. Several of the more than 50 firefighters at the scene left the main fire to fight the house fire, but it had penetrated the attic and eventually burned away part of the roof.
Roanoke Fire Capt. Audie Ferris said that in Gainsboro, one of the oldest parts of the city, the water mains are smaller, so insufficient water pressure became a problem.
The hydrants can easily support one engine company, Ferris said. But seven engine companies and four ladder trucks were needed to fight this blaze.
The building was unoccupied at the time, and hadn't been used by the First Baptist congregation for more than 10 years.
In 1991 it was leased by the Acting Company of Roanoke Valley and the League of Roanoke Artists.
The groups set out to create Arts Place at Old First, a center that would bring black and white citizens together and also provide entertainment for guests at the nearby Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center.
Polly Ayers Bixler, executive director of The Acting Company, collapsed in tears at the sight of the building in flames.
She and her husband, Larry Bixler, had rushed to the site from Mill Mountain Theatre, where they had just finished a performance of "The Snow Queen."
"I'm sick for Gainsboro and the city," she said. "It's the building, that's the sad part."
Almost $100,000 - a combination of private funds and a $50,000 grant from the city - had been spent on stabilizing and renovating the building, said Evie Lander, a community planner with the city. The work was expected to cost $500,000 by the time it was completed, according to estimates.
The damage to the house at 42 Gilmer also distressed Lander. The city had spent almost $400,000 to move it rather than demolish it for the widening of Wells Avenue.
"For once we had a whole street," she said. "Plus, the city has gone to great pains on that house."
Roanoke Valley newcomer Gary Walton, manager of Hotel Roanoke, called the church fire a definite loss to the area.
The fire did not threaten the hotel, Walton said, but embers carried by the wind set fires in mulch on an embankment across the street, he said. Hotel employees doused the ground fires.
Officials were hesitant to call the fire suspicious, but said the cause was under investigation.
Basham noted that the fire behaved strangely, burning through the middle of the roof first, instead of one end. He said a fire crew would stay on the scene all night to watch for flame-ups.
Around Gainsboro, church members were trying to find ways to remember the building in which many of them were baptized.
Kiersten Carlton, 28, and Vickie McDaniel, 26, who were visiting from the Virginia coast, saw the flames from the Mill Mountain Star and came down to see the fire. They took pictures of the burning building and passed out the Polaroids to the gathered church members.
Hazel Brown took one gently between her thumb and forefinger and studied it thoughtfully.
"God bless you," Carlton said. "And we're sorry."
Staff writers Cathryn McCue and Sandra Brown Kelly contributed information to this story.
by CNB