The Fire at St Lawrence's: Monday 30 May 2005

Summary

•  On Bank Holiday Monday, 30th May 2005, at approx 12:15 pm, St Lawrence’s church was struck by lightning. 

• The ensuing fire severely destroyed the roof of the chancel (East end of the church), and caused secondary (e.g. smoke) 
  damage to the rest of the church

•  Worship and other services continued!

•  Repair work was undertaken; we were able to return to the cleaned nave by the end of November 2005, and the remaining repairs (including some re-ordering) were completed by late 2006

•  The church was (and still is) fully insured for the major direct costs

•  We have lots of Thank You's to share

• Our celebration service to mark completion of the repairs took place on  Sunday 10 December 2006

During a severe thunderstorm on 30^th May 2005 (Bank Holiday Monday) lightning appears to have entered St Lawrence Church at the junction of the vestry roof and the lower edge of the chancel roof.  (NB The church did/does have a lightning conductor on the tower, and we had just received a month earlier the certificate indicating it had passed all tests.  Moral:  Lightning conductors only reduce the chance of damage!)

Two walkers who had been sheltering under the church lychgate from the thunderstorm saw the initial strike.  Though without a phone themselves, they alerted a group of young  people from local Sevenoaks Churches who (Praise the Lord!) had volunteered to spend their Bank Holiday Monday to prepare a children's garden area at the adjacent St Lawrence School.  Like all young people, they had plenty of mobile phones to start making those necessary calls to the emergency services and contacts.  (We had a month earlier updated the list in the church porch of our “Who’s Who” of church contacts – keeping an up-to-date noticeboard has always been one of our priorities of demonstrating we are a living church!)

One fire engine was already attending another lightning strike (fortunately much less severe) at Lower Frankfield, so was on site within minutes.  Eventually five  appliances attended, with attention divided between getting irreplaceable items (altar frontals, etc) out of the church, and stripping off tiles from the roof to expose the burning timbers.  Thanks to the fire crews’ great care in using the minimum amount of water, the resulting water damage has not been great.

The chancel arch acted in effect as a fire break, and helped keep the fire to the chancel and vestry roofs.  But there was considerable smoke damage  throughout the church.  On first inspection, there was no damage to the stained glass.

• Regular Sunday worship resumed first in the Village Hall for 6 months, then in  the nave for the enxt 12 months.)

• Baptisms:  Took place as usual during normal Sunday worship

• Marriages:  (a) Those due in 2005/2006: All pre-arranged marriages were discussed the next day with the intending couples, who were given all the options available.  All agreed to relocate to neighbouring churches.  (Interestingly, a marriage which could legally have been solemnised at St Lawrence’s may, during repairs to the parish church, take place in an adjacent parish church, and in law (Section 18 of the Marriage Act, 1949, for those who want to know the details!) is treated as if the service had taken place at St Lawrence’s – i.e. St Lawrence’s Registers are used!)  Our priest-in-charge, Michael leads the services.  
  (b) Those due in 2007 - took place as usual in St Lawrence Church

• Funerals:  We obviously never hope for any! – but when they occurred, they again took place at the church.  

(B) Repairs to the church building and its contents A tin roof was been erected over the chancel, to help repair of its roof Safety screening was been placed around the damaged chancel and vestry area (with loose tiles and scaffolding etc it was a dangerous area!) A wooden screen was erected to completely separate chancel from nave.  This was so that professional cleaning of the nave could take place independently (and sooner) than the longer-term repairs to the chancel and vestry.  This screen was decorated by members of St Lawrence School and our own Sunday School 3 'roundels' by school and two by Sunday School) The organ was been completely dismantled, cleaned and rebuilt The electrical system in at least the chancel and vestry had to be replaced (inc. new heaters and lights).  Again, we needed also to learn how much damage there may be to the electrics in the rest of the church

•  Some of the church contents, for example linens and altar frontals, had some slight smoke or moisture damage;  these were sent away to be professionally cleaned and/or restored.

• We began to consider some additional works which it would be prudent to undertake while workmen are on site. (e.g. since much of the electrical system needs replacing, what about better lighting, or improved heating?)  We therefore expected and planned  that in the end St Lawrence’s would emerge as an even better church!

• We were fully insured for all the obvious up-front costs (building repairs, cleaning, additional hiring costs of e.g. Village Hall, loss of fees or other income).  NB We were obviously not covered for additional works which we felt we should take the opportunity of doing

• A letter of information was sent to all parish residents, to those on the Church Electoral Roll, and to others connected with the church

Thank You's (largely in chronological order)

• To the walkers who were on hand

• To the young people working at the school – and for the technology of mobile phones which helped raise the alarms so quickly;
  To the young people also for helping to form a chain to help remove from the church furnishings and other valuables before they got damaged

•  To the fire crews who attended the fire – and for their great care in extinguishing the fire with the minimum of secondary water damage.  (Thank you also, God, that the two firemen injured in the fire were soon able to return to duty.)

• That the “Who’s Who” in the church porch was up-to-date, so contacts could be made

• To the team of people who arranged safe keeping of the church’s valuables (long-term professional storage was also arranged)

• To all those who had extra work (e.g. setting up/clearing away in the Village Hall) to maintain our regular services in the community

• To the Diocese of Rochester for their specialist advice and care.  NB All the repairs were covered by “Faculties” (legal permissions), but the Diocese expected (and so it proved)  that many of these can be fast-tracked.

• To Chris Rayner, our architect, for overseeing the repair programme.

• That the church is fully insured – thank you to all who over many years have given faithfully to pay for unexciting things like insurance!

• To all those who sent letters of condolence, or offered prayers

• To all those who offered practical help – like “I’ll give you two days of wheelbarrow labour to help shift debris”.  (Sorry that Health and Safety regulations prevented us taking up much of such encouraging offers – we had to move quickly to employ those whose livelihood is dealing almost instantly with potentially unsafe buildings.)

• To the Village Hall, and to neighbouring churches (especially St Margaret’s, Underriver) for the use of their premises.

• To those who so quickly offered financial help;  as already noted, although we are insured for the obvious losses, we do expect to incur some costs not covered by insurance.

A Celebration Service to mark completion of repairs …

•  We rejoiced that on Sunday 10th December 2006 we were able to meet for a special service to mark completion of all the repairs associated with the fire.  Our Rural Dean, Revd Paul Francis was our preacher; and we shared a wonderful cake made by
  Miss Janet Baker, one of our parishioners