St. Michael’s in Poway Gutted by Raging Fire; Cause a Mystery

A spectacular two-alarm fire that shot flames and smoke into the sky like a volcano early Wednesday demolished St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Poway.

Damage was estimated at more than $2 million.

Firemen were called to the scene at 7:13 a.m. after a parishioner who was dropping off newspapers in a recycling bin noticed smoke coming from the church building. The sanctuary had been closed to worshipers since Monday so that the interior walls and ceiling could be repainted.

Witnesses said the fire apparently started in the center of the church sanctuary, building up heat that blew out the east and south sides of the 800-seat structure and sending flames shooting through a glass skylight above the altar as in a volcano.

“It was pretty much gone when we arrived,” said Poway Battalion Chief Garry MacPherson. He said 11 firefighting units from Poway and San Diego responded, but “there was very little we could do except keep the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings.”

MacPherson said that Sheriff’s Department arson investigators were called in but were unable to determine the point of origin or cause of the fire because of the instability of the collapsed structure. He said the arched roof of the building collapsed, “and we decided not to risk the safety of the firefighters” by sending them in to extinguish smoldering sections of the structure.

He said no injuries were reported in fighting the fire.

“This is a case where the structure might have been saved if there had been a sprinkler system installed in the building,” MacPherson said. But the building was constructed in 1971, before Poway was incorporated and before county building codes required sprinkler installation in large buildings, he said.

The fire gutted the 5,000-square-foot structure and an attached kindergarten classroom at the rear.

“We thought for a while that they could save the classroom but then the whole roof collapsed,” said the Rev. Daniel Finn, associate pastor at St. Michael’s.

Finn arrived at the Pomerado Road church about 7 a.m. to prepare for a 7:30 a.m. Mass at the nearby church meeting hall, where church services were being held while the sanctuary interior was being painted.

“When I stepped outside for a breather about 15 minutes later, I heard voices shouting, ‘Fire!’ and I ran to the church,” Finn said. “I looked in and saw that the place was full of flames and smoke, and I warned people to get out of the way, that the whole place looked as if it was going to blow.”

Painters who had been refurbishing the sanctuary since Monday told firemen that they were using only water-based and other non-combustible cleaning solvents in their work, Finn said.

“We don’t know how it started, and there have been no incidents of any kind that would lead one to suspect arson,” Finn added.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Jack Davidson said that “any time a church burns, it’s suspicious. There is nothing in a church that you would normally expect to be responsible for a fire, like a stove or oven or something like that.”

Neither Poway fire officials nor sheriff’s arson investigators would comment further until after a complete investigation.

MacPherson said that, probably by mid-day today, steel girders and other debris will be removed and investigators will be able to pinpoint where the fire started.

Finn said services will continue to be held in the church’s social hall until the sanctuary is rebuilt. Rebuilding will begin immediately, he said.

The blaze did not spread to a nearby eight-room school or to other offices, a chapel, a convent and other buildings on the site, which is across Pomerado Road from Pomerado Hospital.

Msgr. Charles Dollen, pastor of St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Poway, said that St. Michael’s is the “mother church” for four or five other parishes in Poway, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos and Carmel Mountain Ranch.

“For many years, St. Michael’s was the only Catholic church in the area between San Diego and Escondido,” Dollen said. He said St. Michael’s pastor, Msgr. Joseph Finnerty, is in Ireland.