San Dimas Church Fire Causes Over $400,000 in Damage

The church bell that has called members to worship for almost 100 years at the San Dimas United Methodist Church was silent Sunday morning.

Instead, the members were shocked by the sight of a partially charred church and a fallen bell.

A fire had broken out sometime after 5:30 a.m., causing about $400,000 damage to the church in the 100 block of West 2nd Street, said Inspector Mark Tolbert of the county Fire Department.

The fire damage is a setback, but not the end for the church, whose members joked that it is the “oldest and poorest” in the area.

“The church structure is damaged; the church is OK,” said the Rev. Lee Seals, who is pastor for the Methodists, who now share the facility with two other congregations.

No one was injured in the blaze, which was contained in about an hour. Much of the sanctuary was gutted, and the part of the structure that houses offices and meeting rooms suffered minor smoke and water damage.

Tolbert said it appears that some papers or other combustible materials sitting on top of a floor furnace in the sanctuary caught fire when the furnace, set on automatic timer, turned on. The fire then got into a nearby vent in the wall and traveled up rapidly, he said.

Neighbors said they heard the bell fall from the tower.

It had served as a distinguishing feature of the white wooden church with a gray roof and trim, built in 1901 and listed by the city as a historical landmark.

The church, which is insured, will be rebuilt, Seals promised.