St. Louis Church Fire - Fond du Lac, WI
Around 920pm on the evening of March 19th, 2007, the historic St. Louis church in downtown Fond du Lac, Wisconsin caught fire.
Hundreds of Fond du Lac residents surrounded the church, watching as the fire gradually became larger. By 1130pm, the southern-most steeple which had been burning for almost an hour, toppled and fell over on the south yard of the church lot. The northern steeple had smoke pouring out of it earlier on, but remained standing. The rest of the church was gutted.
Firefighters kept the fire contained to the church and immediate surrounding area. Luckily, no injuries were reported (although the following morning, a pigeon was found nearby that had suffered burns...it was taken to the local humane society and survived). A new Walgreen's building and small strip-mall (neither of which were yet occupied) sat adjacent to the church on the same block. Firefighters had to spray both buildings as cinders and falling debris landed on and around the two structures.
A long plume of smoke stretched all the way across town, as the relatively strong north wind made the battle with the fire all the more difficult. We were less than 200 yards away from the fire, and could hear the firefighters yelling back and forth about their next moves.
The church had recently been purchased and was in the process of being converted into a sporting-goods store by local business-owner Dave Haase.
Visible from all directions (even from highway 41 and on top of the east ledge on highway 23), the two steeples defined the Fond du Lac skyline for more than 100 years.
My wife and I were saddened to see such an important landmark destroyed. A small town like Fond du Lac prides itself on such distinctive locations, and I think this loss will be felt by many for a long time to come.
Final deconstruction of the church began on April 9th, and was completed on April 19th, exactly one month after the fire. As of July 2007, the cause of the fire had not been determined. According to city officials, what actually caused the blaze will likely never be known.
Click a picture below to see a larger version. There are also several short MPG videos of the fire.
