The aftermath of a fire at The Church of the Holy Name, Greenisland, September 2, 2024, and interview with Rev Isy Hawthowne-Steele
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00:30Well, we got the call about 9 o'clock to say that some bins were on fire at the back of
00:41the church.
00:42And I naturally thought it was just a small fire, but when we got here it had almost exploded.
00:43And to the point where it has totally devastated the whole of the parish church wall.
00:44And nobody was injured.
00:45The main thing is that nobody was hurt.
01:06Is the church itself alright?
01:08I'm not sure at this stage.
01:09At this stage, the fire fighters have had to take the other side of the roof off.
01:17Because there's many embers for getting some second chances and possibility to put out
01:25fire.
01:26But I think they've contained that.
01:27Now, they're still working really hard.
01:29There's a lot of damage inside the church today, the fire chief was telling me.
01:35telling me and I got in today and we retrieved our Bible and a few things and then I had
01:42to leave because some of the roof was starting to fall. So if we lose the roof we just pray
01:50that we don't lose our stained glass windows and we pray that the church doesn't go up.
01:59And what's your own personal feelings on this?
02:03My personal feelings are I've been a member of this church since I was seven and now as
02:11the minister of the church you can imagine it's been my life, loving this church and
02:17for the people of Green Island who have been baptised here, have seen many many occasions
02:26of christenings and of their grandchildren and children, of great-grandchildren, of weddings
02:34and sadly those who have passed on. This church is just a life of the community, it's a people
02:42and it is a building and why we are the church of the Holy Name and we really revere that
02:50and we just know that as a community we will pull together and we are a people of God and
02:57we will come through this.