“We could feel the heat inside the house standing in front of the window,” Lombard recalled.
NECN
The heat even melted the siding of a property next door.
The church had stood for more than a century, according to longtime residents of the community who stopped by Church Street, the scene of the fire, on Wednesday.
“It was a fight that was not going to turn out well,” said Chief Gary Dillon of the Waterbury Fire Department.
The age of the church was just one challenge facing firefighters who raced to Middlesex from neighboring communities, bringing in their own water.