First Baptist Dallas’ chapel is a charred shell, but ‘our church is not a building’

Amid the smell of smoke, Dallas Fire-Rescue on Saturday continued to spray water on a fire-damaged chapel, now a charred shell, at First Baptist Dallas in the aftermath of a four-alarm blaze.

Saturday afternoon, Dallas Fire-Rescue issued a statement saying the church was “inaccessible due to the lack of structural integrity” and it may need to be demolished. The cause was listed as undetermined.

Dark stains framed the chapel’s shattered windows. Passersby paused in front of the structure and, with a quiet solemnity, took photos with their phones. Chunks of stone with shattered rebar littered the sidewalk. Specks of ash drifted in the wind and disappeared amid the debris. Workers erected fencing around the precarious structure. At least two Fire-Rescue trucks remained at the scene.

First Baptist Dallas announced Sunday’s service will be held at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center at 11 a.m. and livestreamed online. In a Facebook post, the church said child care will not be available, adding that “families will worship together.”

The church’s announcement came just a few hours after Dallas Fire-Rescue on Friday battled the fire that caused the historic church’s secondary chapel — which served as a place of worship for over a century until the church opened a new facility in 2013 — to “largely” collapse, an official said.

PHOTOS: First Baptist Dallas’ chapel is a charred shell

20 images

View Gallery

Most firefighting operations began to shut down between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Saturday, said Capt. Robert Borse. Overhaul companies, which search for and extinguish any remaining fire after the main flames have been put out, “have been on scene throughout the night and remain currently to ensure ... safety on scene and to continue extinguishing hot spots,” he said.

Borse said in a statement Saturday afternoon the building was inaccessible. The church installed fencing around it Saturday afternoon and must provide 24-hour security and obtain a structural engineering assessment within 24 hours, he said. If the historic church is unstable, it’ll have to come down.

The fire department will remain nearby until the structural integrity is assured or the building is demolished.

VIDEO: Drone footage shows charred remains of First Baptist Dallas church

Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist, said the church is working with the city to “preserve as much of the structure as we can.” He said that over the next 24 to 48 hours, the church is hoping to have plans approved by the city that would allow it to keep the structure in place.

But there is a focus on ensuring safety first, he said.

“There’s certainly a lot of sorrow and reminiscing about a building, having been inside it so many spiritual milestones for so many people,” he said.

There’s also an anticipation, Jeffress said, adding that he believes God causes everything to work together for good for those “called according to his purpose,” which includes terrible events like the church fire.

“He doesn’t will those things but he’s able to take those horrible things and use them for our good and his glory,” he said.

There have been no reported injuries, Borse said. The cause is classified as undetermined for now.

“However we reserve the right to change or supplement this finding based on new or additional information which may subsequently be determined,” he said.

Officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the church Saturday. They were not conducting their own investigation, but assisting the Dallas fire department and helping process the scene, said ATF Dallas spokesperson Sara Abel. “A lot of the time, we get called in to just assist, and that’s where we are at this point,” Abel said.

“Our church is not a building,” Ben Lovvorn, executive pastor, said in an interview in front of the sanctuary. “It’s not bricks and mortar. It’s the people, and we’re going to come together and we’re going to worship together.”

Lovvorn confirmed the First Baptist campus has retained power. The red brick historic sanctuary appears to be a total loss, he said, although church officials are waiting on an official determination. “The loss of the building is a severe disappointment,” he said. The sanctuary has been in use since it was built in 1890.

“My family has been here for five generations. I was raised sitting in that room,” he said.

Decades of First Baptist history were likely lost: original stained glass windows, wooden pews, a pipe organ and some historic archives, Lovvorn said. About 2,000 children spent the week at a vacation Bible school held in the sanctuary. The event ended midday on Friday and no one was in the building at the time of the fire, he said.

“We’re thankful for God’s protection over our church, over our people, and very grateful that nobody was injured,” he said.

The basement contained a library and archives. All of the artifacts are digitally preserved, said Abigail Miller, a church spokesperson.

Church members and residents share memories

Michael Burks walked around the perimeter Saturday to see the damage to the church, where he’s worshiped all of his 54 years. The morning sun shined through empty windows and over the crumbling brick walls.

“It’s devastating,” Burks said. “I was married there, baptized there, buried my in-laws here. It’s an incredibly important part of my life.”

Mitch and Jillce Stevens, who have been with the church for a decade, saw smoke billowing over downtown from their home in the Kessler Stevens area Friday. The couple visited the scene on Saturday.

The history of the building and its loss are “unbelievable,” Mitch Stevens said. “The church is actually the people and this is really an instrument. And it’s very sad, but the good news is no one was hurt. No one was killed.”

Jillce Stevens pointed to the steeple. It was still standing. “Two of my best friends were married in there. Baptized their children in there.”

At the site, Michael Foutch recalled walking out of the Joule Hotel on Friday night when he saw the fire battalion chief’s car race by. He approached the church. “I heard this huge explosion and all of a sudden the roof collapsed,” he said. “Just a wall of smoke and a wall of flames.”

The Dallas resident recalled hearing Billy Graham preach at the church when Foutch was still in high school. “People from all over the world would come here,” he said. “It’s just a sad day. Maybe they’ll put in a landmark, a plaque, or something.”

Mark Howell, 65, stared at the remains of the sanctuary, where his father had played the pipe organ for decades. “It’s real sad,” he said. The Rev. Richard Howell played about 450 weddings in the church. Mark Howell played the oboe for the church’s orchestra several times in 2017. The music “just filled the whole room,” he said.

Every morning, Marnie Murdock listens to Robert Jeffress, the church’s senior pastor, on her way to work. The Burleson native was never part of the church’s congregation but still she was shaken. ”I’m the most emotional person. For me, this is very sad,” she said.

The church’s marquee, which remained intact, offered her hope. The sign included numbers to Bible verses. ”It’s Colossians 1:9 through 14... It’s basically about rebirth,” Murdock said. “God restores everything that is broken, and there is so much broken about our world. I have faith and trust that something is going to come out beautiful.”

First Baptist Dallas officials expressed their gratitude.

“We are eternally indebted to Mayor [Eric] Johnson, to the police officers, to the firefighters. They have been such a great help to us. And we’re working together for a common goal, to preserve life and also try to preserve as much of this structure as we can,” Jeffress said Saturday afternoon.

Fighting the blaze

At 6:05 p.m. on Friday, crews were called to the sanctuary at 1717 San Jacinto St. and confronted with “heavy smoke” from the building fire, Borse said. A thick sheen of smoke enveloped dozens of firefighters and emergency personnel working outside the church as fire alarms blared and flashed from inside the building.

At 9:46 p.m., more than three hours after the initial call, the crews had contained the fire. No injuries have been reported, Borse said, adding he had no reports of evacuations in the area or damage to surrounding structures.

Dallas Fire-Rescue first classified the fire as a two-alarm fire and, at 7:25 p.m., nearly an hour and a half into the response, updated it to a third alarm. The fire was upgraded to a fourth alarm at 8:14 p.m., meaning additional engines were dispatched. Part of the rationale for upgrading the alarm level was to protect surrounding structures from possible exposures, Borse said.

The chapel partially collapsed just after 7:30 p.m. Within the next hour, more than 60 units were responding to the fire, according to a list of active calls on Dallas Fire-Rescue’s website.

Crews working to contain the fire overnight battled heavy clouds of smoke and debris, Lovvorn said. Church staff plan to work today to clear the grounds of charred wood and fallen debris to prepare for Sunday’s services.

“They’re still looking to identify the source,” Lovvorn said. “There’s an investigation underway. But the rest of the campus is functional.”

First Baptist’s long history

First Baptist Dallas started in 1868 with just three men and eight women, according to a story by The News on its 150th anniversary.

A historical marker indicates the first building “was one-room frame structure, which members financed by weaving rugs, making hominy, preserves, and cheese to sell at fairs near Dallas, then a frontier town of 2,500,” according to the Texas Historical Commission. “Section of Victorian-style, red brick building was erected 1890; is only downtown Dallas Church still on original site.”

The historic sanctuary was the site of visits from Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush, according to Jeffress. President Donald Trump visited the new worship center of the church in 2021.

The church now has about 16,000 members and says its mission is to transform the world with God’s word one life at a time through its ministries, including its international broadcast of Pathway to Victory and its iCampus, which reaches millions of listeners and viewers worldwide.

Staff writers Adrian Ashford, Miriam Fauzia, Jamie Landers, Arcelia Martin, Chase Rogers and Kai Teoh contributed to this report.