Early morning blaze engulfs Middleborough church; cancels town parade

A 6:37 a.m. call reporting smoke in the neighborhood alerted fire officials to a fire that escalated to a four-alarm blaze, drawing 80 firefighters from 11 engine companies and six ladder companies, Fire Chief Lance Benjamino said. Firefighters with oxygen tanks disappeared into the blackened structure as others swung on tall ladders, blasting the roof with huge streams of water from four directions.

Earlier, the blaze grew so intense that a trio of deafening air horn blasts ordered an emergency evacuation of the blackened structure amid fears the church's soaring white steeple would collapse.

Shocked residents gathering early for the parade at Town Hall across the street instead crowded behind yellow police tape, as thick blankets of acrid smoke hung in the air.

"I just can't believe it,'' whispered Vietnam War veteran Ronald Matthews, rows of military medals gleaming on his ceremonial dress jacket. Like others, Matthews was supposed to march in today's parade, but instead stared in disbelief at the wreckage across the street.

"My daughter was married in that church," Matthews said.

Benjamino said the fire began in a back kitchen and traveled up a wall and into the steeple. State Fire Marshall Stephen D. Coan was at the scene along with investigators who hope to soon pin down the fire's origin and cause. Fire officials determined that the church's interior was a total loss but said they held out hope parishioners may be able to retrieve some religious relics.

One firefighter with an injured knee left the scene in an ambulance.

Nancy Thomas watched the church burst into flames with tears in her eyes, remembering her friend Olive Kinsman, who left $350,000 for the church in her will before she died last November.

Central Congregational's pastor the Rev. Bruce Smith saw the smoke from a second-floor window in his home just down the street. He rushed down and stood on the lawn of the Unitarian Universalist church in a red Chicago Cubs shirt and flip-flops, surrounded by clergy from other local churches offering comfort. Smith said the church's vestry was supposed to vote Wednesday on repairs to the building's roof as well as door and window replacements.

At first, Smith thought firefighters had the blaze under control, but then, he said, "the wind whipped up."

"My main concern is that this didn't happen yesterday" when the church was filled with Sunday worshipers, he said. "We have to keep moving ahead. God put us in this community for a reason."

Globe correspondent Michele Richinick contributed to this report.