'Heartbreaking' to watch Pacquet church flattened in fire, says retired reverend

A small town on Newfoundland's Baie Verte Peninsula is mourning the loss of their beloved church, which was levelled in a fire that started early Tuesday morning.

"It was a terrible sight," says Sidney Newbury, a retired reverend who lives in Woodstock, just up the road from Pacquet.

The United Church caught fire early Tuesday morning. By lunchtime, the building was flattened to its base.

"It's the place where people gathered in good times and in times not so good, and I think it's beginning to strike them now that that landmark from 1956 is no more," Newbury said, on how people are feeling now.

"It's where we shed tears when times were not so good, and where we were joyful when times were good. No matter what happened in the community, you could always gather at the church."

Newbury woke up to a phone call around 6 a.m., asking him about the fire — which he didn't know about at the time.

"The night before, we had a meeting to ask our minister back for another while, and of course we came home quite happy," he told CBC's St. John's Morning Show.

"Come to realize that things just change after a few hours."

While firefighters from three communities battled the flames that devoured the church — as the steeple burned, the roof collapsed and the structure was razed — people gathered at the town hall.

'Very hard to put into words'

Among those gathered were the first people — now adults — to be baptized by Newbury at the church back in the 50's.

There, Newbury said, people shared stories of memories at the church.

"It's very hard to put into words what it meant for me. It's heartbreaking, to be honest with you … This place is where we gathered our friends and neighbours," Newbury said.

"It's now just a memory."

Crews were able to save the church's bell, as well as a few other items, Newbury said, but a lot was lost.

"The first thing I thought of, I don't know why, but there was a beautiful old organ in that church and I used to love the lady who played so well when we were having services there, and I said to the wife, I said, I hope they could save that organ," Newbury said.

"There are other things as well, of course — the communion sets, which is all a part of our lives, that we share with one another in worship, but the organ was the thing that stood out to me."

Newbury has been retired since 2000, but on occasion still performed ceremonies at the United Church in Pacquet, where the population has dwindled and aged over the years.

As for what will happen with the congregation now, Newbury said "it's too early" to know what will happen.

They've been told it will take about a month for a fire investigation, and then another month for the insurance company to look into it.

"We have to get together to decide, do we want to replace this building? Or do we want to worship with someone else?" Newbury said.

"We have our Pentecostal people not too far away and I'm sure as they always have they will do everything they can to help us in this situation where we find ourselves at the moment."

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