Louisiana Congregation Continues On After Second Fire Within a Year

A Louisiana congregation looks to persevere after their church was set on fire for the second time in one year. According to WWLTV, in October, half of the church was set aflame and the church has been rebuilding ever since. Much of the construction equipment was inside Slidell church, as crewed hoped to finish the rebuilding project in the next few weeks.

On July 2, however, a fire call with the same address came in at 7:30 a.m. and shook the entire community.

“Our hearts go out to the congregation here. To go through one fire is bad enough, but to go through a second one, I can’t imagine what somebody would be thinking even lighting a church on fire,” said St. Tammany Fire District Chief of Administration Chad Duffaut.

“It’s heartbreaking to know somebody would do this to a church,” said Clarence Powe, member of Slidell church. “But this time around, especially when you’re just starting the rebuilding phase from the first fire, for this to happen again, it kind of makes you feel, ‘are we doing the right thing?'”

Despite someone clearly trying to hinder the church’s success, its members are optimistic they will overcome no matter what obstacles they have to overcome.

“We don’t know the rhyme or reason behind this,” Powe added, “I’m not going to speculate how this happened because I don’t know, but no matter what it is, it won’t hinder our growth moving forward to rebuild god’s house right here in this area.”

Slidell church leaders plan on having the new church open by October. The building crew could potentially use composite siding, which looks like painted wood, stone, or brick and requires minimum upkeep, along with being termite-free, rot-free, and even fire-proof.

Members of the congregation continue to state the church’s 50-year past will help them persevere over any difficulties they might endure while rebuilding this church.

Authorities are still trying to determine whether or not the same culprit or culprits caused both incidents.