An overnight fire at a church in Montgomery County, Maryland, destroyed its organ, piano and roof, costing some $5 million in damages, fire officials said.
A fire was reported at Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church on New Hampshire Avenue in Sliver Spring around 1:45 a.m. Friday. Smoke was leaking through the church’s roof when fire crews arrived.
“Likely the fire had been burning for a while, at least smoldering, because when firefighters first got here, they did have some very high heat conditions and some pretty heavy smoke,” Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer told WTOP’s partners at 7News, adding that it took three hours to beat the flames.
The fire appeared to have started inside the audiovisual control booth of the church near the sanctuary area. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service said on X that the fire was “accidental” and told the church the cause was “electrical.”
Update — Spencerville Seventh Day Adventist Church, automatic fire alarm activated; Origin/Cause, sanctuary area, accidental, unknown malfunction/failure of an electrical item (electronic equipment, electrical cords, power strips); Damage likely >$5M; no injury pic.twitter.com/8irRyTKhrM
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) August 9, 2024
The fire cause caused significant damages to the building, including the sanctuary, church officials said in a statement. The organ was left with “virtually no pipes remaining,” while the technical systems for the audio booth area were destroyed. The piano was also damaged in the fire.
In a post on X, Piringer said damage to the church is likely to be more than $5 million.
Spencerville Church plans to hold its Saturday Sabbath worship services in the
auditorium of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, located at 12501 Old Columbia
Pike in Silver Spring starting at 11:30 a.m.
Below is a map of where the fire took place:
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