Editor’s Note: This post was updated at 1:52 a.m. Sunday with some new information from Dauphin Middle Paxton Fire Chief Bob Rusbatch.
Two were people were left temporarily homeless, and one of them was injured Saturday night by a fire at an old church building in Dauphin Borough.
Fire crews from Dauphin, Perry and Cumberland counties rallied to save the former Methodist church building at 600 Erie St. Saturday night, and were largely successful in largely containing flames to an unoccupied portion of the building’s basement and some interior walls on the main floor.
Dauphin Middle Paxton Fire Chief Bob Rusbatch told PennLive the cause of the fire remains under investigation by a Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal.
Crews were dispatched to the church at 7:20 p.m. Saturday, after the unidentified male resident, - who lived in a basement apartment with his wife - flagged down passers-by outside the building. The man was later taken to Penn State Holy Spirit Hospital for treatment of hand injuries, but information on his condition was not immediately available.
Rusbatch said his crews found the fire in the unused part of the basement, and tracked some extension into an interior wall running up into the main floor. The fire was declared under control at 7:49 p.m., though units remained on the scene well past 9 p.m. to check for hotspots and potential rekindles in the old stone and timber building.
The two residents will need to be assisted with housing by the Red Cross in the short term, the chief said, but the building itself is salvageable.
While several congregations have used the building for services since the Methodists left the building around 2000, Rusbatch said the church is not in active use at present aside from the basement apartment rental.
But the 133-year-old building still clearly hold significant to many neighbors.
One Erie Street neighbor, Jack Rudy, told PennLive Saturday night that he was impressed at the firefighters’ response. While it was evident that there was fire damage in the interior, Rudy said, the old church’s walls were standing, the rook appeared intact, and the stained glass windows seemed undamaged.
“It looks like we’ve done well by preserving the building,” Rudy said.
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