{"id":141962,"date":"2018-06-16T08:23:52","date_gmt":"2018-06-16T08:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/newport-church-fire-building-wreckage-still-smouldering\/"},"modified":"2018-06-16T08:23:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T08:23:52","slug":"newport-church-fire-building-wreckage-still-smouldering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/newport-church-fire-building-wreckage-still-smouldering\/","title":{"rendered":"Newport church fire: Building wreckage still smouldering"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
Image caption Firefighters have been on the scene throughout the night <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A huge fire that gutted a 130-year-old church is still smouldering, more than 15 hours after the blaze started.<\/p>\n

The Grade-II listed Bethel Community Church, on Stow Hill in Newport was destroyed after a fire spread from a neighbouring derelict nightclub.<\/p>\n

At its peak, 95 firefighters and officers were on the scene, but no-one is understood to have been injured.<\/p>\n

The church's pastor, Andrew Cleverly, said: "Our building may be gone, but the church is alive."<\/p>\n

A statement on the church's website said: "Thank you all for your prayers and support. We are saddened by the devastating fire that has occurred."<\/p>\n

An investigation into the cause of the blaze cannot begin until it is safe for investigators to go inside the building.<\/p>\n

Media playback is unsupported on your device
Media caption'Keep away' warning as nightclub and church burn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Image caption Pastor Andrew Cleverly said the church had a 200-strong congregation <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service received dozens of 999 calls just after 18:15 BST on Friday.<\/p>\n

The blaze broke out in the former nightclub known as Zanzibar, Heights 2000 and latterly Escapade.<\/p>\n

Mr Cleverly said it was "a traumatic scene" when he arrived to see the building on fire.<\/p>\n

He added: "The church building is completely razed to the ground, it's just four walls left. It was very sad - a lot of people were upset, holding hands and crying - there was absolutely nothing you could do."<\/p>\n

Skip Twitter post by @GriffithsJECtrl <\/p>\n

\n

Wow thank you Ben how kind of you, I\u2019ve a little tear in my eye over such kindness to our crews, really appreciated https:\/\/t.co\/qLPMPCBGFA<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jennie Griffiths \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc77\udb40\udc6c\udb40\udc73\udb40\udc7f (@GriffithsJECtrl) June 15, 2018<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Report <\/p>\n

End of Twitter post by @GriffithsJECtrl<\/p>\n

More than 40 people were evacuated from nearby buildings and were taken to Newport Centre.<\/p>\n

Stagecoach Wales tweeted that the road expected to remain closed for much of Saturday and would affect some of its services.<\/p>\n

Skip Twitter post by @Elliot__Edwards <\/p>\n

\n

@southwalesargus Flames engulfing the roof of the Bethel Community church on Stow Hill. #fire #Newport pic.twitter.com\/N1286RJcDu<\/p>\n

\u2014 Elliot Edwards (@Elliot__Edwards) June 15, 2018<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Report <\/p>\n

End of Twitter post by @Elliot__Edwards<\/p>\n

A cordon on Stow Hill and North Street remains around the church and former nightclub and fire crews are expected to remain on the scene for most of Saturday. <\/p>\n

Crews from as far as Cardiff helped tackle the blaze as 19 appliances, including 10 fire engines, were used to contain the fire.<\/p>\n

Welsh Water sent tankers to the scene on Friday to ease the demand on the water supply.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman said: "As the fire is still ongoing, some customers in the Stow Hill area may notice a drop in water pressure or discoloured water. We have sent text messages to those who may be affected."<\/p>\n

Image copyright Katie Maddocks
Image caption Bethel Community Church dates back to the 1880s <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Image caption Church members will meet to pray in Stow Hill car park at 10:30 on Sunday <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Image copyright Twitter\/ Colin Paterson
Image caption The blaze could be seen across the city <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Image caption The church had hoped to raise \u00a3200,000 to renovate previously unused areas of the church <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image caption Firefighters have been on the scene throughout the night A huge fire that gutted a 130-year-old church is still smouldering, more than 15 hours after the blaze started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}