Investigation underway after hearth destroys historic Salt Lake church

SALT LAKE CITY — A historic downtown church slated for demolition was closely broken by hearth early Sunday morning, regardless of the very best efforts of Salt Lake Metropolis firefighters.

About 5:30 a.m., police and hearth crews arrived at 1990 South 500 East and located the Wells Ward meetinghouse totally engulfed in flames. Upon exiting their automobiles, firefighters heard screaming and “encountered two adults up on the balcony of the construction on the east aspect of it,” mentioned Salt Lake Hearth Capt. Brandt Handcuff.

Firefighters had been capable of rescue the 2 younger adults, who had been handled for minor smoke inhalation and launched on the scene.

Responding crews escalated the decision, bringing in extra crews from the South Salt Lake Hearth Division, South Metro Davis Hearth and Unified Hearth Authority. 4 hearth vans, 12 hearth engines and about 85 firefighters responded to the scene, Brandt mentioned. The hearth and response prompted street closures at 500 East from 2100 South to 1700 South.

By 5:40 a.m., a part of the construction had collapsed and neighborhood members had been urged to maintain their doorways and home windows closed as the fireplace produced heavy smoke. By 7 a.m., the flames had been lowered to simply pockets of fireside inside the constructing, based on Salt Lake police. Gold Cross and Rocky Mountain Energy additionally responded to the scene, and hearth crews continued working to guard close by properties.

As of 6:48 a.m., there are nonetheless pockets of fireside burning.

Our officers, who’re drone operators, are serving to @slcfire by offering the incident commander with an infrared view of the fireplace from the sky.

That is very useful expertise. #SLC#SLCPD#SaltLakeCitypic.twitter.com/fkhawJQigy

— Salt Lake Metropolis Police (@slcpd) May 26, 2024

The property has been vacant for fairly a while with trespassing on the property changing into a problem for Salt Lake police, based on Handcuff.

The almost century-old Latter-Day Saint meetinghouse was badly broken within the 2020 earthquake and has been set for demolition. The Liberty Wells Neighborhood Council had expressed hopes earlier this 12 months that the property could be rezoned for single-family properties.

“It was uninhabitable after the earthquake in order that they had been going to demolish it. It has been gated off for fairly some time now,” mentioned Handcuff. “However it was slated for demolition truly inside the coming weeks, so this may simply pace up that course of, as we’ll must demolish it in order that we are able to proceed to get these sizzling spots out.”

The reason for the fireplace is underneath investigation, with investigators asking anybody with data, video or footage earlier than the fireplace began to name non-emergency dispatchers at 801-799-3000.