By Katie Vasquez
Where normally there are the sounds of bells, Tuesday night there was the sight and smell of smoke, after a fire broke out at St. Pancras in Glendale. But this church is still standing thanks to the quick work of its parishioners.
It was a call that these parishioners didn’t expect.
“She called me and said the church is on fire,” said Sandra Yankow, a parishioner at St. Pancras. “She said ‘I’m not seeing flames but I’m seeing a lot, a lot of smoke and I just started to pray.’
The shocking news that their beloved parish was on fire Tuesday night spreading from parishioner to parishioner.
“I thought I was gonna have a heart attack,” said Francesca Ferraro a parishioner at the church. “I said ‘it’s impossible.'”
Pastor Monsignor Steven Aguggia says it all started when a passerby called 911 around 11 o’clock, but not only did the firefighters respond, the parishioners also responded.
“What a great show of love they showed for their church,” Msgr. Aguggia said. “They expressed that they love our church, love our parish. They were here because of that love and I was so impressed by it.”
After the first responders stopped the flames, members of the community stayed until 2 a.m. cleaning up water left behind.
Wednesday morning, even though the church and rectory were still without power, the parish decided to celebrate Mass.
“We were very careful with the parishioners all safe and finding their seats and we set up some battery operated lights on the altar, so the mass could be celebrated,” Monsignor Aguggia said.
Their prayers in the dark powered by the light of Christ, and a faith-filled community whose fast work they believe saved their church from further damage.
“God was good, he answered all our prayers, We here,” Ferraro said.
“We pray for each other every single day no matter what’s going on,” Yankow said.
Knights of Columbus in Glendale are calling on the community to visit and look after the priests and staff here as restoration continues. An investigation is still underway for the official cause of this fire.