The cross and steeple of St. John the Baptist Church in Jefferson have been removed following a fire that happened earlier in the week.
At around 9 p.m. on Monday, June 24, firefighters from the Jefferson Fire Department rushed to the church.
The firefighters were responding to a report that the steeple caught fire after a loud boom was heard while storms were moving across Jefferson County and the greater south-central region of Wisconsin.
Responding to the scene
Msgr. Donald Heiar, parochial administrator of St. Teresa of Calcutta Pastorate of which St. John the Baptist is a part, was on-site at the time and believes the fire was caused by a lightning strike.
Investigators are actively determining the cause, and no injuries were reported.
After arriving, Jefferson Fire Chief Ron Wagner called additional fire departments from surrounding communities to help put out the fire.
Monsignor Heiar explained that while the Jefferson Fire Department brought their ladder truck, the church’s steeple was too high, standing at 200 feet.
He said that Chief Wagner “right away called to bring everybody in,” and added that “the basket and ladder that went all the way up to the top was [from] Verona”.
In addition to the Jefferson Fire Department and Verona Fire Department, the fire departments of Fort Atkinson, Cambridge, and Rome also traveled to help.
Monsignor Heiar soberly recalled that firefighters were at the church until Tuesday’s sunrise, “keeping an eye to make sure [of no further damage, since] we had storms again this morning”.
When Monsignor Heiar was handed control of the church at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the cross was, thankfully, still standing upright, although it had a slight lean.
Because of the significant damage, the cross and steeple were taken down and the open area capped, to prevent any further damage.
Monsignor Heiar recalled that when he removed the Blessed Sacrament from the church, as firefighters were actively pouring water on the flames, “I thought I’d go in there and be wading through water.”
Instead it wasn’t as bad as had been imagined.
Because of preventative measures firefighters took, most of the water was not standing idle and water damage was limited to the back third of the church.
Paul Davis Restoration was on-site early Tuesday morning to begin the water mitigation effort.
A ‘resilient group’
Monsignor Heiar was especially thankful for the firefighters who fought to save the church, and so were the parishioners of St. John the Baptist, teachers of the school, and additional community members who were on-site early Tuesday morning.
Jodi El-Beri, coordinator of religious education for the pastorate, has been a parishioner for 23 years and has worked for the school for 16.
El-Beri said she first heard about the fire from social media and that her fears were confirmed once she read the incident report online.
When she was driving to the church the night of the fire, the steeple “looked like a torch,” and once she arrived, the street “was just full of people, there were people everywhere, praying together and watching”.
El-Beri added that onlookers weren’t “gawking;” instead, “It was heartfelt. People were concerned and upset, people that maybe weren’t even our parishioners. I think we’re here today because of prayer and our faith.”
St. John the Baptist school teacher Katie Warpinski, who didn’t visit the church until early the following morning said, “I was in awe that the cross was still there.”
“Looking at the pictures of the fire and seeing videos, I did not expect it to still be there this morning.”
Warpinski was standing next to a fellow teacher, Katie Kammer, who also didn’t arrive at the church until Tuesday morning.
Kammer said she sees the steeple every day when she drives to Jefferson and crosses the bridge over the Rock River.
She said the experience was “something where you don’t sleep. I was up all night praying that it would still be there.”
Warpinski said, and Kammer agreed, that it was the “power of the amount of people that were praying for this church” that helped the firefighters to be successful.
Monsignor Heiar acknowledged the path forward.
He said, “Last weekend, we talked about the storm of the Sea of Galilee. We talked about what the storms in our lives are — that we have realized or yet to realize.
“On the feast day of the Nativity of John the Baptist, our St. John the Baptist, we get hit by lightning, but this is a resilient group, Catholics are. But that’s their church, the cornerstone says 1866, so we’re part of a legacy, we’ll march on, and we’ll fix it,” Monsignor Heiar said.
Damage assessments of the church are currently underway, and for the time being, all Masses and activities at the church have been canceled.