NEW YORK, May 2 (UPI) — A massive fire destroyed a historic Serbian Orthodox church in Manhattan on Sunday.
The New York Fire Department battled the four-alarm fire with 168 firefighters on the scene.
Earlier that day, 700 parishioners at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava on West 25th Street had celebrated Easter, which fell on May 1 this year on the Julian Calendar.
On Sunday night, following the blaze, parishioners returned to see the ruins of the church, which dates to the 19th century and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1968.
“There is so much damaged you can’t find a point of origin,” Frank Gibbon, a department spokesman told The New York Times. “The whole roof is a wooden truss. It’s gone.”
Firefighters used water cannons as the blaze tore through the building quickly.
A building caretaker suffered minor smoke inhalation when he tried to rush inside when he noticed the fire. Five other people, including four firefighters, suffered minor injuries, according to the fire department.
“It means the world to me and to see it […] I was just here four hours ago for Easter,” parishioner Jovana Djurdjevic told the NBC affiliate in New York.
The church was previously known as Trinity Chapel.
The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission also gave the building landmark status the same year as the National Register.
The city had said of the church at the time, “its special character, historic significance, and aesthetic interest and value of the development, heritage, and cultural characteristics of New York make it irreplaceable.”
