Up In Smoke: American History DESTROYED

(DailyVantage.com) – Video footage captured a historic church in Massachusetts going up in flames, scorched all the way to its iconic steeple. The fire has left the local Christian community devastated by the loss of the historic structure.

First Congregational Church was located in Spencer, Mass. just 50 miles outside of Boston. On Friday, June 4, footage beginning around 3 pm local time showed the church in bright orange blazes, while people looked on in horror. Voices can be heard screaming in horror at the sanctuary, which was built as a Protestant Christian place of worship in 1863, burning to the ground.

Local media reports confirmed that the fire was caused by a lightning strike. This was discovered following a brief local investigation. The church’s towering steeple was struck by lightning, and this set the entire structure into a bright flame. Camera footage captures the moment when the steeple succumbed to the flames and slowly collapsed, as if fainting, to ground level.

The church administrator spoke with local news networks and explained that the fire was so rapid that there was “no smoke”, or smell of fire. The administrator had been the one to let firefighters into the building to rescue church workers who were still inside preparing for the weekend services.

The administrator explained to reporters that the churchgoers are feeling great “pain” over the loss because some “raised their families” in the old structure, and that “generations of brides” had walked down the aisle there. This was also the church where generations of people had “baptized their babies.” Baptism is a Christian ceremony where the individual is submerged or sprinkled in water to symbolize how they had passed from the burial of death into the resurrection of Christ.

While the church is physically gone, the congregation of the First Congregational Church of Spencer is not. The church announced that, following the tragic loss of their building meeting, the congregation would be meeting at First Congregational Church of Leicester. The distance between Spencer and Leicester Massachusetts is approximately 5 miles.

First Congregational Church of Leicester will now be the place of worship for “two congregations” as the community comes together following the tragic loss of the historic building.