IONIA, Mich. — An historic house of worship in Ionia caught fire Thursday night, but leaders at Zion United Methodist Church say nothing irreplaceable was damaged.
“We got everybody out of the building,” said the church’s administrator and treasurer, Debra Hall, who also runs the church’s food pantry. “It was kind of chaotic, but people did pretty well.”
Debra was in the kitchen Thursday night making meals for the pantry’s patrons when she smelled smoke.
“We started smelling burning and everybody’s yelling, ‘Check the ovens,’” she said. “And the food was fine, no problems.”
Debra quickly realized the burning was coming from near the kitchen area. One of her co-workers grabbed a fire extinguisher, but the flames had already spread.
“By the time I went to the stairway to get him, there was smoke; there was fire; it was just too hot,” Debra said. “He couldn’t do anything.”
In the light of day Friday, Debra took in the emotional sight of the 138-year-old church singed and shuttered, as restoration crews worked around her.
“There were tears and I still get choked up once in a while because this is what I do. This is what I do almost every day,” she said. “So it’s tough but you just do what you’ve got to do.”
The church — and its food pantry — have been in a tough position before. Debra said in 2014, the food pantry ran out of funding and had to close their doors.
“And we only closed for a month, and the community had money given to us and we were up and running,” she said.
The church is funded entirely through donations. Luckily, a congregant owns a banquet hall nearby, so they’ll hold services there for the time being.
Firefighters haven’t officially named a cause, but Debra said the outlet where the fire started was running a popcorn-making machine for a movie night at the food pantry at the time.
“We have restoration people here; they’re going to clean up and we’re going to keep going and get the food pantry up and running again,” she said. “This community supports us. It’s totally funded by donations and the community supports us 100% all the time, and we are very grateful.”
