Church in central Turlock burns down 2nd time

A church at Columbia Avenue and South Orange Street was destroyed by fire early Friday morning and the fire insurance policy on the structure may have lapsed. A fire in 1947 burned the first church at the same site.

The fire at Equip Church was called in at 4:38 a.m. and portions of the 7,000-square-foot basement still were burning at 10:30 a.m., the Turlock Fire Department reported. No injuries were reported, but the residents next door were evacuated as a precaution, said police spokeswoman Mayra Lewis. The building, with an estimated value of $270,000, is considered a total loss.

Streets around the fire, including West Main Street, were closed and overhead power lines were disconnected, cutting power to 15 to 20 homes, said Turlock Irrigation District spokesman Calvin Curtin. The outage was expected to continue for the rest of the day, he said.

“As soon as the Fire Department gives the OK, we’ll turn it back on,” he said, explaining water sprayed from ladder-mounted hoses and an abundance of standing water created a safety hazard.

Firefighters from all four Turlock stations and eight surrounding agencies responded to the blaze, with Turlock Rural Fire Department rigs stationed to answer other calls at two of the empty firehouses. Modesto Fire Department’s airport crash vehicle was used to spread fire-smothering foam through the foundation to try to quell the fire in the subflooring.

In all, 45 firefighters battled the blaze from Turlock city, Turlock Rural, Modesto, Ceres, Denair, Hughson, Keyes, Patterson and Stanislaus Consolidated fire districts. The American Red Cross set up a tent with water and refreshments for the crews.

Turlock city fire Battalion Chief Scott Wejmar said firefighters battled the blaze inside the church for over an hour before structural instability forced them to abandon the interior. The roof collapsed soon after. At 9 a.m., firefighters with axes and power saws were trying to gain better access to the building’s large basement to put out stubborn spot fires.

Watching from the Blessed Hope Assyrian Church across the street, pastor Greg Hazenberg and his wife spoke with investigators and congregation members.

Equip Church had rented the building for the past three years and had insurance on its contents, but the building’s owner had let the fire insurance policy on the structure lapse, Sandy Hazenberg said. “We paid $200 a month (rent), which was the cost of the insurance, but it didn’t get paid,” she said with a sad shake of her head.

The church is owned by Pentecostal Pathfinders, according to the Stanislaus County Assessor’s Office.

“Our women’s Bible study group met here last night,” she said, adding members saw nothing amiss when they left. Despite its age, the church had no known electrical or gas issues, she said. “If we plugged in too many things, it would flip a breaker, but that’s it.”

About 100 people each week attend church services, said church member Josh Kemper. “The neat thing is over half of them were children,” Kemper said.

The original structure was built in 1920 as the Seventh-day Adventist Church, said Turlock historian Scott Atherton. “The interesting thing was it burned down once before,” he said. “ It burned down in 1947 and was rebuilt. It was a really neat old building, kind of an art deco style,” he said.

An old Turlock Journal newspaper clipping said the first church burned down Dec. 20, 1947. The structure that burned Friday was dedicated June 28, 1949.

The interdenominational Equip Church, started about six years ago, moved into the building after the last church left, Sandy Hazenberg said. The congregation had remodeled the nursery, added a heater and air-conditioning unit, tiled the bathrooms and replaced carpeting. A Love Turlock crew repainted the building two years ago.

The main floor sits about 5 feet above grade. Neighbors who came by for a look midmorning said homeless people regularly slept on ramps leading down to the shallow church basement.

Standing in her yard a few doors down from the church, Ida Giron said her dog woke her up, behaving strangely, at 3 a.m. But she did not get up to investigate until smelling smoke around 4:30 a.m. Walking outside, she saw flames leaping above the roof.

Giron’s home is just yards from the New Life Temple Christian Center. The neighborhood includes the Four Seasons Christian Fellowship and the large Turlock Covenant Church. “We are blessed with churches,” she said.

Giron said with her power out and fire engines still pumping water in front of her driveway, she had given up on getting to work that day.

Three blocks away on Locust Street, the smoke was so thick around 8 a.m. that Kenny Schaffer and neighbors thought one of their homes was on fire. “I walked out for a morning cigarette,” he said. “The smoke was just engulfing the backyards.”

Bicyclist Larry Nunez followed the billowing smoke to where safety tape stopped passers-by and snapped cellphone pictures of the still-burning building. “You don’t see that every day,” he commented.

“Our firefighters did a great job this morning. I watched firsthand their never-ending training put into action to minimize the impact of the fire,” Turlock Mayor Gary Soiseth said Friday afternoon.

Despite the destruction, late Friday Sandy Hazenberg said a cross and a child’s changing table with sentimental value had emerged unscathed from the wreckage. “It’s kind-of cool that God rescued the two things my husband and I most wanted,” she said.

The congregation held a prayer service at Columbia Park on Friday evening and will hold this Sunday’s services at the park, she said. Several area churches have offered to host their congregation and services, and she said on Sunday they expect to have made a decision.

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 6:34 AM with the headline "Church in central Turlock burns down 2nd time."