Photo courtesy Jim Wolf

In an update to our earlier story, Harlan Fire Chief Roger Bissen, late Monday morning, issued a statement concerning a fire Sunday afternoon that destroyed an historic church. Bissen said the Harlan Fire Dept. and Medivac Ambulance were called to 1612 8th Street (the old St. Michael’s Catholic Church), after a report was received of smoke coming from the building at around 3:50-p.m.

The first crews on the scene observed smoke coming from the windows and roof. Mutual aid was requested from Westphalia Fire and an interior attack began on the flames. Due to rapidly changing fire conditions, firefighters were pulled out of the building and efforts began to fight the flames from the exterior.

Additional calls went out for help to the Denison Fire Department (which sent its ladder truck), as well as the Kirkman, Defiance, Shelby, Avoca and Walnut Fire Departments. Harlan Police, and deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office assisted with traffic and scene control.

From the Harlan Fire and Rescue Facebook page.

The Harlan Pizza Ranch offered to assist by bringing food and drink for the firefighters to the scene, and the wives of several firefighters along with members of the community distributed the food.  The scene was finally secured and cleared at around 10:20-p.m., Sunday. Some crews returned to the scene early this (Monday) morning, to extinguish hot spots.

An investigator with the State Fire Marshal’s Office has been requested to determine a cause of the blaze. The parish built a new church adjacent to its Catholic school in 1964. The structure that burned was built in 1925 for 40-thousand dollars, according to the parish website, and had been vacant for about five-years. No damage estimate is available at this time.

Courtesy Jim Wolf

Photo courtesy Jim Wolf