Four residents are homeless and a 120-year-old church is in ruins following an early-morning fire Sunday.
Joliet police received the first call at 5:10 a.m. Sunday about the fire at the Christ Episcopal Church on Van Buren Street.
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The complex is in an H-shape, with the sanctuary and church on one side and the rectory on the other. Crews responding to the scene said the worst of the fire was on the church side.
"Flames were actually shooting through the roof in that portion of the building when they arrived," Joliet Fire Chief Larry Mores said.
The sanctuary, church section and attic were all fully involved, he added.
"Their first objective was to make sure everybody was out of the rectory area because it had been turned into apartments," Mores said of the first crews on the scene.
Although the residents were a corridor away from the worst of it, the fire itself probably saved their lives.
"We were told by the residents that they were awakened by the sound of the fire and the heat, so they quickly exited the building," Mores said.
Those first crews called for two additional alarms and four engines, three aerial apparatuses, four ambulances and a call back of one off-duty shift were required to fight the blaze.
By 7:40 a.m., the fire was out, but the damage was extensive. Monetarily, Mores estimates the damage between $1.5 million and $2 million.
Christ Episcopal Church was built in 1886 in the English High Gothic style. The church was two stories tall and the rectory was a three-story building. The exterior of the church is limestone, but the rectory is frame.
Amazingly, the rectory remains pretty much intact, while the church is a total loss.
"The building is very unstable, so a contractor is going to be hired to knock down a couple of walls that are very unstable," Mores said.
The front wall and rear wall were likely to come down and by Sunday night, a portion of each had been removed to make it safe for investigators to enter Monday.
The structure was so unstable, Mores said an investigation could not start until some of the walls came down.
The building served as a church until 2004, when the parishioners made the decision to vacate the building and merge their congregation with St. Edward.
Rev. Kathryn White, pastor of St. Edward and Christ Episcopal, was out of town and could not comment.
The church was the site for the May wedding of Joliet native Adrianne Curry and Christopher Knight, the actor who played Peter Brady in The Brady Bunch and included his wedding in his TV reality show "My Fair Brady."
In August, owner Mark Tomac announced a plan to renovate the structure to stage concerts inside five nights per week. The venue was supposed to open in March 2007.
It is unknown if renovations had started.
"At this time it appears it did start somewhere in the area of the church," Mores said of the fire. "At this time the fire and police investigator have formed a task force," Mores said.
The task force includes the state fire marshal; Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency; 15 fire investigators from the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System; and the south suburban fire investigators task force, he added.
"We do this type of an investigation on all large monetary-type loss."
Not only could investigators not access the building to find a cause for the fire, but also they could not conduct a thorough search.
"We do not know if there is anybody else left in the building," Mores said. "At this time, no one has been injured."
Mores said personnel would be on hand through the night guarding the shell.
The four residents displaced have been helped by the Red Cross or have chosen to stay with relatives, Mores said.
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