For more than 2 1/2 hours, Chicago firefighters helped to control, then eventually put out, a three-alarm fire that started at Holy Name Cathedral. The Cathedral’s history with the city stretches all the way back to 1846, when it was first known as Chapel of the Holy Name.
Up to a dozen fire trucks were on the scene of the fire at State and Superior Streets in Chicago. No serious injuries or fatalities were reported.
The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, but The Chicago Tribune has reported that the blaze started in an attic area, where the church was conducting extensive renovations. Holy Name Cathedral had been closed for six months for major structural repairs before re-opening this past August.
Though the Cathedral’s roof will definitely have to be re-built, other areas of the church, including the sanctuary. Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford remarked to the Trib that while the floor of the sanctuary had flooded with several inches of water, the actual alter experienced no damage at all.
Another Church official said that holy sacristy at the cathedral was removed. It was also reported that the rectory, which contained marriage and birth records from the 1800s, had been evacuated, but also saw no damage from the fire.
Read the full article in the February 4, 2009 edition of collegenews.com.
They removed the “sacristy”? LOL!! I don’t think so…
Yes – that was my thought too… They removed something, but I think the reporter may have been confused…