Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Our 2nd big fire on Andros!

Well my friends, if you remember, last year (see post for May 8, 2009) we had a huge fire in Fresh Creek where a huge building burnt to the ground. There is no fire department on the island other than the US Navy, and their big truck won't fit over the bridge.

Well we had another, this time it was the Anglican church. The Anglican community here in Fresh Creek meets on Sun evening. They have 1 priest covering 6 churches up and down the east coast of Andros so starting at 7AM and going non stop till 7PM he is a busy guy and Fresh Creek gets the Sunday evening service.

Anyway, they have their service at 7, it goes till about 830, and everyone goes home. By that time I had already done my 4th liturgy of the weekend myself and had crashed. Ginni and I are watching TV when, about 10, the power goes out. This is not uncommon so we decide to call it a night and go to bed.

Well the next morning I get a call from someone on the Navy base saying she'd just seen an email saying that their Fire Department was called out during the night and St. Michael's Catholic Church had burned to the ground. Well there is no St. Michael's so she knew it was wrong but when she called the Fire Dept she was told the white church on the water had burned - well that describes us, and St. Stephen's, the Anglican Church. So when I answered the phone she was sooooooo relieved. I jumped in the van and rode down to St. Stephen's and sure enough, just 4 walls standing, the rest was a smoldering hulk.

Our phone is our fax machine, so when the power went out we lost phones. Having gone to bed we didn't even know the activity that was going on less than a mile away, while parishioners were trying to call us to let us know.

I've spoken to the minister and they are fully insured and will rebuild, until then they're merging the Fresh Creek community with their Calabash Bay community in the next town, but it is a terrible loss.

Suffice it to say, we would REALLY like to see the Bahamian government get a fire department off the ground for the family islands like Andros - time will tell, but don't hold your breath. Until then I am keeping our fire extinguishers fully charged, and I bought two 100' garden hoses. It's not much but its something

Till next time