Devastating Fire Destroys Historic 19th Century Provo Tabernacle

A massive fire destroyed the Provo Tabernacle, a historic building that has been a landmark in Provo for more than a century. Friday night the fire that began just before 3 am continued to smolder, with a giant pile of rubble inside still burning. Firefighters gave up on putting water on the blaze and said they will let the fire burn out. They said water will only do more damage. Smoke billowed from the building earlier as firefighters worked on the four-alarm fire. They have been at the building all day dousing hot spots. Provo Fire Marshall Lynn Schofield said, "All of the roof has collapsed into the structure, and now it's just a process of putting out the burning debris in the structure and getting it safe for us to go and take a look at it." He said crews will be on the scene all night. An onlooker takes pictures across from the burning tabernacle. Fire Battalion Chief Gary Jolley said crews had the fire contained but not controlled for most of the day. Early Friday evening, firefighters said it remained too dangerous for crews to go inside. "We had a lot of smoke coming out of it, so the incident commander determined he wanted to keep people out of there because he didn't know how long it had been burning inside and he didn't know if the structure was safe to go in and to send crews into actually fight the fire inside there," Jolley said. That decision to keep firefighters out may have saved lives; just after Jolley spoke with KSL around 6 am the Tabernacle roof ...

Related : Oils & Fluids Buy Cheap LCD LED Plasma 3D HDTV SeosoCity Best Buy Laptops