Saints Prepare to Build Anew after Chapel Gutted by Fire

“We’re going to roll up our sleeves and get to work, and get a new building,” said Bishop Earl Limb following the fire that gutted the Minersville Ward Meetinghouse, Beaver Stake, Utah.

The fire, believed to have started in the electrical wiring, was first noticed in the early hours of October 12 by a farmer who was bringing in his cows for milking. His warning of flames reaching up from the building’s cultural hall started a community-wide alarm with people driving around sounding their car horns. Minersville is an almost 100 per cent LDS community with a ward membership of 463, and a non-LDS population of approximately 30.

“The fire spread from the cultural hall, through the chapel, and then into the area of the Relief Society room, and the classrooms,” said Bishop Limb. “We tried to save the piano in the cultural hall, but the roof started falling in and it got to be too dangerous, so we got out. We lost everything in the chapel: the organ, piano, songbooks, sacrament trays, benches, carpets, painting, everything. We lost everything in the cultural hall and the kitchen, but we did manage to save the silverware that was stored in the Relief Society room, and the quilts that were on frames. We managed to save the records and the furniture from the bishop’s office, and the classroom furniture.

“We have a fire truck here in Minersville, but we had to call for additional help from nearby communities. The water probably evaporated before it hit the flames, the fire was putting out so much heat.”

Bishop Limb estimates it will take two years to rebuild, and in the meantime, the ward will be meeting in the local elementary school building. “The fire hit us on a Friday, and we met in the school on Sunday. We used white plates for the sacrament bread and the other wards in the stake shared their extra water trays with us as well as their songbooks.”

The meetinghouse, dedicated in 1951, cost a total of $97,000, less than the ward’s present share of a new building. “But everything is moving right along, and everyone is cooperating and willing to help and sacrifice that we might have our own building again. I think working together to build anew will make us a more united ward, and we will be more grateful for what we have.”