Greenport’s First Baptist Church did not suffer significant structural damage in the fire that started in the basement there early Sunday morning, Pastor Tom LaMothe said today.
“Structurally the building is fine,” he said in a phone interview this morning. “It’s just a massive cleanup.”
The pastor’s wife Jeanette found smoke coming from a vent when she went to the church before Sunday morning services to pray. She called 911 and Greenport Fire Department put a quick stop to the apparent electrical fire. See prior story.
“The landmark is intact,” the pastor said. He does not anticipate the congregation will be displaced from its home at all, he said.
LaMothe said he’s taken aback by how he’s been besieged since yesterday morning’s fire with phone calls from people trying to sell their services for repairs and clean-ups.
“It’s amazing how many people come crawling out of the woodwork, calling you at 7 in the morning,” he said. Some even pretend to be government officials, like the man who called early this morning and said he was from “the building department,” LaMothe said. “It wasn’t a 477 number or a 765 number so I knew it was bogus.” When he began to question the caller, he hung up, LaMothe said.
“To me, that’s the real story here. Our church and our congregation will be just fine,” he said.
