Anglican Church significantly damaged in St Leonards fire

A St Leonards church has been gutted and a hall destroyed in a suspicious fire overnight. SEE THE FOOTAGE

St Pauls Anglican Church in St Leonards sustained significant damage in a fire overnight.

A St Leonards church has been gutted and a hall destroyed in a suspicious fire overnight.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said Geelong Crime Investigation Unit detectives were investigating the fire at St Pauls Anglican Church on Dudley Parade.

The blaze started about 2.15am on Thursday.

“The church and an adjacent building sustained significant damage during the fire,” the spokeswoman said.

“An arson chemist will attend today to determine the cause.”

St Pauls Anglican Church warden Alan Swanwick said the contents of the building had been gutted.

St Paul's Anglican Church warden Alan Swanwick outside after the fire. Picture: Alison Wynd

He said the adjacent hall, which contained a kitchen, toilets, meeting tables and chairs, had completely burnt down.

“How can you put a value on it and then how can you replace it,” he said.

Building damage after a suspicious fire at the St Paul's Anglican Church in St Leonards. Picture: Alison Wynd

“It’s a lovely, simple, country church.

“It has the things you need and they have become important to people over time rather than because they are anything ornate.”

A new organ was among the items in the church that were destroyed.

Mr Swanwick said the hall was built about 30 years ago but the first service in the church was in January 1915.

He said there were 20 regular parishioners and the church had planned to use the festive season to connect with more locals and holidaymakers.

Emergency services on the scene of a suspicious fire at the St Paul's Anglican Church in St Leonards. Picture: Alison Wynd

“It’s the smallest church of the three in the Bellarine but it is growing,” he said.

“We have had other churches wanting to use the space too and we’ve been sharing with the Uniting Church for some time.

“We had builders reviewing the structure about 18 months ago and they looked at the slate roof which is very thin so we’ve been gradually building up a fund to replace that.

“Those funds will now likely become part of what we do with the church in total.”

Lance and Susan Bossner live across the road, and their son who was visiting was the person who called firefighters.

Mrs Bossner said she heard a beeping noise and crackling of timber, before she saw the smoke and flames.

Her son, who is a volunteer firefighter, went over to the church and saw a pew on fire but found it was too hot to pull it out of the building.

“We don’t have a fire extinguisher and there was no hose over there so he came back to grab buckets of water but by the time he returned it had caught very quickly and was in the roof,” she said.

“The firefighters put it out very quickly.”

A Country Fire Authority (CFA) spokesman said seven appliances from CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) attended the scene.

He said they found the church 50 per cent involved and had the incident under control in about half an hour.

Any witnesses, anyone with vision such as dashcam or CCTV footage, or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or anonymously at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.

Originally published as Anglican Church significantly damaged in St Leonards fire