Brookfield’s fire chief last week credited the fire alarm system at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, 9035 Grant Ave., with saving the building from a blaze that could have been devastating.
At 2 a.m. on Palm Sunday, April 1, the church’s alarm system, which is tied into the Brookfield Police department’s alarm board, activated. When fire department personnel responded to the scene and checked the church’s main alarm panel, it showed that smoke detectors in the second-floor attic had been activated. Firefighters reported “moderate smoke” in the attic area and moments later discovered an active blaze in a nearby storage area.
According to Chief Patrick Lenzi, the fire appears to have started in a bucket containing a pile of rags soaked with linseed oil, a substance he said was “notorious” for spontaneously combusting. Church members, he said, had been using the rags earlier in the day to spruce up the church for Palm Sunday.
Firefighters were able to easily extinguish the fire, although smoke and water used to douse the fire damaged the storage room and a nearby meeting room. Despite the ease with which the fire was contained, Lenzi said units from Lyons, McCook, Riverside, LaGrange and LaGrange Park responded to Brookfield’s call for assistance.
However, the fire could have been much worse, Lenzi said, had it not been for the alarm system connected to the village’s emergency panel. While the exterior of the church and adjoining school are stone, the interior of the church contains wood vaulting, paneling and pews.
“We’re very thankful [the alarm system] was there and that the fire department got here so quickly,” said St. Paul’s Pastor Benjamin Ball.
Lenzi said that while many businesses and institutions are hooked into the alarm system, there are some major buildings that are not.
“If not for that detection system, it could’ve been a horrible fire,” Lenzi said. “That alarm system saved the church and school.”
Palm Sunday church services were held as scheduled, Ball said.