Historic Eastford Church Destroyed by Early Morning Fire

Eastford, Conn. — Early Sunday morning, during a torrential rain storm, area fire crews were awoken to respond to a raging fire at the…

Apr 23, 2023

Eastford, Conn. — Early Sunday morning, during a torrential rain storm, area fire crews were awoken to respond to a raging fire at the historic Eastford Congregational Church, built in 1829.

At approximately 3:25 am on Sunday, April 23rd, 2023, a 1st alarm assignment was struck for reports of a structure fire at the Eastford Congregational Church, 8 Church Rd. Minutes later, a responding unit reported seeing fire through the trees and requested an immediate second alarm. As crews arrived on the scene, they found the church heavily involved, with fire coming through the roof. A 2nd Alarm assignment was struck in addition to a regional Tanker Task Force, due to the lack of hydrants in the immediate area.

Early into the firefighting operations, the roof of the church began to collapse and the decision was made to change to a defensive firefighting posture. This decision meant that no crews would be entering the building as it was too hazardous.

Firefighters began rapidly deploying hose lines, including 2 1/2 inch attack lines and blitz fires (intended to flow large amounts of water onto a fire) to the front of the church. A short time later the steeple of the church collapsed into the structure throwing a plume of fire into the sky.

In accordance with the order for defensive operations, aerial trucks were brought in from the Woodstock Volunteer Fire Department, the Dayville Fire Department, and the UCONN Fire Department. These aerial trucks allow firefighters to flow an enormous amount of water (upwards of 1500 gallons per minute) on the fire and reach the innermost parts of the structure. This task is impossible to accomplish with a handline from the perimeter. Providing all three of these units with enough water is an enormous task. With there not being any hydrants in the area, nearly a mile of 5" Large Diameter Hose (LDH) was laid into the scene, along Church Rd, with engines strategically placed along the route to relay the water from one truck to the next. Additionally, a tanker shuttle was established on John Perry Rd. To perform this tanker shuttle, approximately 10 tanker trucks, each carrying upwards of 1500 gallons of water, were filled at a nearby pond, driven to the scene, and dumped their water into one of three portable tanks to be pumped to the short way uphill to the fire scene.

According to Eastford Fire Department’s Deputy Chief James Roy, “It was a lengthy process, a lot of heavy fire, [firefighters] had powerlines to contend with, and the thunderstorms coming through the area hampered the operation.”

Chief Roy went on to say “Eastford is a small community, [the loss of the church] is a tremendous loss to the town”

Crews fought for approximately 3 hours to extinguish the fire, but in the end, the building was a complete loss.

During the incident, the Killingly Rehab Unit, later joined by the Providence Canteen, was on the scene providing responders with, water, hot coffee, food, and a brief moment of shelter from the pouring rain.