CLEVELAND — Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal Temple has 155 years of history. Its legacy, and memories, are what's keeping the community strong after a devastating fire gutted the historic church from top to bottom Thursday night.
On Friday, outside the church he's served for the past seven years, Pastor Ariel Santiago was trying to find answers from fire investigators. He's put his heart and soul into a recent renovation. It hurts to see the remains of it now.
"When you have a new house and your new house is burning completely, you feel like your knees are going to be on the ground," Pastor Santiago said.
Fire investigators have ruled out arson, but are still looking into what caused the fire. The damage to the building is massive: About $100,000. Neighbors say they are heartbroken, because of the rich history and transformation of the church.
"It's horribly sad to see this happen. It was a Serbian church to begin with, St. Savas, the first one, I believe, in the city. And this street was a lot of mixed Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Polish, Irish, German. Big nationalities in this pocket of Cleveland. And, it's very, very sad to see. I remember as a young boy, we would hear the bands playing and we just wanted to see them. And we would go in and people were always so friendly," said James Bitterman, who grew up a few streets away. "It has always been an active church in the community, always."
"It's really hard to see this happen. But, you know, the hope is, the cornerstones and a lot of, you know, other pieces hopefully can be salvaged. So kind of the history of the building can live on," said Greyson Glass, of salvaging parts of the building.
That's what is most important to Pastor Santiago, too. He leads a tightknit group of 50 parishioners who provide food and support to some in this neighborhood. He wants to rebuild one day, even if he doesn't know how and when it will happen. But in the face of this tragedy, he wants the community to stick together.
"I can say right now, be with me. Be with the church ... and all the community, be with us. Because, we are for them. Not only for our church, we are for them," Pastor Santiago said.
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