Fire Destroys Church Week Before Yule Celebrations : Thousand Oaks: Redeemer Lutheran was recently renovated. Christmas services may be held in the parking lot.

Faulty electrical wiring sparked an early Friday morning fire in the Redeemer Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks, gutting the 28-year-old building and destroying its sanctuary a week before Christmas.

But the Rev. Elroi Reimnitz, standing in the entryway amid ashes and rubble, vowed that the fire will not interfere with the congregation’s plans to celebrate Christmas.

“We’re still going to celebrate the birth of Christ, in spite of what has happened,” Reimnitz said. “We’re going to do it right here, even if we have to do it in the parking lot.”

Only two months after it underwent $50,000 in renovations, including a new roof and a coat of paint, the modest one-story building has been reduced to a burned-out shell.

The arched roof has partially collapsed. The church’s altar and thick, red-cushioned pews turned to rubble. And the 10-foot-high stained-glass windows that once lined the walls lay scattered about the floor.

“We just have to start over again,” Reimnitz said.

Ventura County fire officials said that the fire, reported by a passerby about 2:40 a.m., apparently was started by faulty electrical wiring in one of the church’s walls. In addition to the main building, an adjoining kitchen area and fellowship room were destroyed.

Total damage to the building and its contents is estimated at $500,000, dispatcher Lisa Hines said.

Church officials said insurance will cover the cost of the damage. However, they are still uncertain about where Sunday and special Christmas Eve services will be held until a new church is built.

Reimnitz said services could possibly be held in two Sunday school classrooms that were not heavily damaged in the fire. He said another option would be to gather the 350-member congregation in the courtyard or even in the church parking lot.

“If we possibly can, we’re going to have services right here,” Reimnitz said. “This is still God’s property.”

Word about the fire spread quickly among parishioners, and several stopped by to offer help and to console one another.

Dan Cassetta said a fellow church member called at 5 a.m. to tell him about the fire. Cassetta, who was in charge of overseeing the church’s renovation, said he rushed over to see if there was anything he could do.

“It was a nasty thing to see,” he said. “It was terrible, heartbreaking.”

Audrey Osslund broke down and cried after peering inside the burned-out building. She and her husband, Norman, said they were members of the congregation even before the church on Camino Dos Rios was built in 1964.

“A lot of people worked hard to build this church,” Norman Osslund said. “Our daughter was baptized here. There’s a lot of good history in this church.”

Tom Van Dixhorn, who serves as chairman of the congregation, said he hopes that the fire will bring church members closer together.

“Our church is the people,” he said. “The building doesn’t mean that much.”

Reimnitz said about 30 parishioners had come by Friday after hearing of the fire.

“Some people are taking it hard,” he said. “This is their church. It’s part of their life. But this is a real strong congregation and people will pull together.”

Reimnitz’s wife, Ruth, agreed.

“God has his way,” she said. “Maybe this is his way of telling us that we are supposed to rise from the ashes and build up a new church and a spiritual family, stronger than before.”