Lightning strikes church, causes fire in Trappe

TRAPPE, Md. – A lightning strike Tuesday night sparked a fire at Faith Chapel United Methodist in Trappe.

The church has been in Trappe since the 1880’s and congregants we spoke with are in shock about the fire.

“We were at the four-way stop and when the lightning hit, it stretched from the church all the way across down the street,” said Karla Wieland-Cherry. “Scared us to death, I thought we had almost gotten hit.”

Just before 8 p.m. Tuesday night, the Trappe Volunteer Fire Company responded to the fire at Faith Chapel United Methodist Church on Bruceville Road.

Wieland-Cherry was one of the people who witnessed the lightning strike.

“It was very sad, we have lived down here for 25 years and just started attending the church a few weeks ago,” she said, “so thankfully, we got to see what it looked like prior to the fire.”

According to the State Fire Marshal’s Office, the church sustained $20,000 in damages to the structure and $5,000 to the contents inside.

Anne Gustafson, the church’s secretary and treasurer, was also alerted to the strike.

“We just live down the road and happened to be watching out the window and saw some lightning over in this area and then probably within about 15 minutes or so, we started getting some phone calls that the church was on fire,” said Gustafson.

For Wieland-Cherry, she hopes for help from the surrounding community.

“Hopefully, the community will get together and help rebuild this beautiful, historic church,” she said.

There will be a church meeting held later this week to see how they are going to move forward.

Firefighters from Oxford, Easton and Cordova also responded to help battle the blaze.