April 13, 2023

Small fire damages chapel at St. Thomas Aquinas College

REGIONAL
Staff report

(IObserve photo/courtesy of Thomas Aquinas College)

NORTHFIELD — Firefighters responded to a small blaze which broke out in the servers’ sacristy of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel at Thomas Aquinas College early on Easter morning.

Firefighters believe it stemmed from the use of incense at Saturday night’s Easter Vigil. When head chaplain, Father Greg Markey, arrived at the chapel to prepare for Sunday’s Easter morning Mass, the smoldering embers were ignited when he opened the sacristy door, which allowed fresh oxygen to enter the room.

“I opened the door, and an enormous wall of dense black smoke came billowing out,” the chaplain said. “I grabbed the fire extinguisher and rushed into the room and went after the fire. It was coming through the floorboards and coming through the walls.”

Father Markey called 911 and then used a second fire extinguisher while waiting for the firefighters to arrive.

“Between the time I called and the time that they were able to get water on it, it was probably about 20 minutes,” he said. “And it was a pretty frightening 20 minutes,” he said. Firefighters said Father Markey’s actions contained the damage.

“We are deeply grateful for the firefighters who risked their lives and sacrificed their Easter morning to save our chapel,” Father Markey said. 

College students and faculty adapted Olivia Music Hall for the celebration of the Easter morning Mass, which was only delayed a few hours.

College administrators said the chapel, which had recently been renovated, will require extensive cleaning and smoke mitigation. They are hopeful that it will be ready in time for commencement on May 13. The building sustained little structural damage outside the sacristy, but heavy clouds of smoke caused cosmetic damage, and a heavy layer of ash now covers the sanctuary.

“We have really amazing vestments here, with all kinds of gold threads, and they’re damaged. The new paint job, with the gold leafing and the stenciling that was done on the walls, will probably have to be cleaned and touched up,” Father Markey said.

He added the fire could have been much worse.

 “The police chief said to me, ‘You could have lost the whole church very easily. Somebody was watching over you,’” Father Markey recalled.

Thomas Aquinas College has a campus in Northfield and in California. The Northfield campus opened in August of 2019 on property which had been owned by the Northfield Mount Hermon preparatory school. The California campus opened in 1971. The small Catholic college follows the Great Books program. Their liberal arts degree has an emphasis on philosophy, theology and math.