| Historic Church Destroyed By Fire | |||
| By Vernon Robison Moapa Valley Progress Published February 11, 2009 Fire destroyed the historic Logandale Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday, February 4. The fire started in the early morning hours in the Relief Society meeting room at the back of the building. A neighbor noticed the blaze and called in the emergency. Local volunteer firefighters received the alarm at around 4:10 a.m. Firefighters |
 The historic LDS Logandale Chapel went up in flames in the early morning of Wednesday, February 4. The building was a total loss. |
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| from Logandale Station 73 were the first responders on the scene, arriving at about 4:25 a.m., according to Clark County Fire Department rural coordinator, Kurt Leavitt. They were quickly followed by the other two local stations: Moapa 72 and Overton 74.
Firefighters were also called from Mesquite to assist in the effort. Equipment and manpower from North Las Vegas also rushed to the scene and arrived at about 5:45 with five vehicles including two tall hook and ladder trucks. Moapa Valley Water District crews responded to the scene to ensure that adequate water supply and pressure was available to the firefighters. The crews opened up the necessary water mains to keep water flowing to the trucks. “(The water district) was very helpful in making sure that we had plenty of water to fight the fire,” said Leavitt. |
 Firefighters work quickly to prepare hose lines to fight the fire which raged through the chapel sanctuary at the LDS Logandale Chapel. |
First responders arrived at the scene to find the west wing of the building fully engulfed in flames. “The fire had already spread into the roof by the time we got there,” said Leavitt. “Under those conditions it was too dangerous to send men into the building. We maintained a strong defensive effort from the outside.”
By about 4:45, the fire had jumped over a significant fire break; the old west wall of the building; and had begun burning in the attic of the large cultural hall in the central part of the structure. From there it quickly spread through the attic destroying the main chapel meeting area and the upper floor of the north classroom wing. |
| Firefighters worked to control the blaze throughout the morning and into the afternoon. The fire was not fully extinguished until about 3:00 p.m.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Currently, no foul play is suspected, Leavitt said. Firefighters were able to repel the fire away from three Bishops’ offices in a south portion of the building. This allowed most of the valuable ward records and computer hard drives in the offices to be salvaged, said LDS Logandale Stake President Ace Robison. But Robison feared that many other items of more historic significance were lost. |
| The building itself was an important piece of local history. Completed in 1951 it was the earliest church built in northeast Clark County and was the second oldest LDS chapel in Southern Nevada. As such, it was also the repository of a great deal of historic items.
“A lot of the little things that were lost were sad but not necessarily tragic,” Robison said. Robison talked about an extensive music library housed in the building that had contained many old arrangements of choral music. Also, Robison said that faithful librarians over |
 Hook and Ladder trucks from North Las Vegas were called in to assist in the blaze. |
| the years had carefully archived and bound a vast collection of church magazines and publications going back to the 1950s. These were housed in the upstairs portion of the north wing of the building, an area that received heavy damage. “Those are the kinds of things that are just irreplaceable,” Robison said. “And they are probably all lost.”
On the day following the fire, the Church’s regional public affairs council released a statement that “plans are already underway to rebuild the Logandale Ward building as quickly as possible.” In the meantime, though, Logandale Stake leadership went to work on how to accomodate the schedules of the three ward congregations that had been meeting in the building. |
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Robison reported that the Stake had received many offers of assistance from community members and organizations. Father Bob Pullman of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church had offered to make arrangements for LDS Sunday services to be held in the new catholic church building in Logandale for a time. Melissa Rowland from the Cappalappa Family Resource Center also contacted Robison with offers to help. The current owner of the old Lyon Drug Store building in downtown Overton even offered to allow church services to temporarily take place in his building. |
| “We feel deep appreciation for the out-pouring of sympathy and the offers of help from people of all walks of life, other faiths and the great family of friends that live in the Moapa Valley area,” Robison said.
With some effort, though, Stake leaders were able to adjust schedules and to assign the three displaced congregations to temporarily share space with other wards in the three other LDS Chapels in Moapa Valley. The Logandale Second Ward, which encompasses the far northern end of Logandale, will attend services in the Moapa chapel. But 2nd Ward Bishop, Matt Messer, will maintain an office in the Logandale Stake Center on St. Joseph Street. The Logandale First Ward will attend worship services in the LDS Chapel at Hinckley Avenue in Logandale. The Logandale Fifth Ward will relocate to the Logandale Stake Center on St. Joseph Street. “Our membership has been entirely willing to do whatever needs to be done,” Robison said of the Stake membership. “They’ve said, you just tell us what time you want us to meet, and where, and we will do it.” |
