The lightning strike started a fire in the Linden Street church's steeple.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A lightning strike started a fire in the steeple at Price Memorial AME Zion Church on Sunday.
Firefighters responded to the report of a chimney fire at the church about 7:49 p.m. and saw fire coming from the steeple.
The Engine 3 crew searched for interior access to the steeple and checked for fire extension. Engine 5 supplied water and used the "deck gun monitor." Also responding was Engine 1 and Engine 6, as the rapid intervention team.
The fire was extinguished within 45 minutes.
The church steeple was essentially an "ornamental" design and
not part of the church's main foundational support structure," said Deputy Chief Daniel Garner in his report.
The top portion of the steeple sustained heavy fire damage. Firefighters removed the damaged portion of the steeple to ensure full extinguishment. Eyewitness reports verified the fire was caused was due to a lightning strike. At the time leading up to this incident the center of the city had experienced a localized microburst thunder and lightning storm.
Garner said due to the quick, hard work of fire personnel and a little divine intervention the fire never gained a foothold on the main part of the church.
There were no fire or civilian injuries from this incident. Damage estimates not available at the time of this writing.
This was the second fire within a 12-hour period. There was a fire alarm activation at 9:15 a.m. at Patrick's Pub. Firefighters found some smoke and water on arrival and a small fire was found to have occurred in a corner of the kitchen near the rear exit. It was extinguished by a single sprinkler head located right above the fire origin. Firefighters ensured full extinguishment and secured the system water flow to limit further damage.
The fire was caused by spontaneous combustion of oil-soaked rags. Damage estimates are not available at this time. City Health Department and Fire Prevention are working with the owner to get the restaurant opened again.
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Pittsfield Proposes a Deputy Public Works Commissioner
By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city is looking to add another leadership position to the public works department.
The Personnel Review Board on Monday supported the creation of a deputy commissioner in the Department of Public Services and Utilities. The full-time position, if approved by the City Council, will have a Grade M-8 pay scale with a yearly salary ranging from $89,247 to $116,021.
This position would assist Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities Ricardo Morales.
"If we think back over my 16 years of being a city councilor, at one point in time, we had a commissioner of public services and a commissioner of public utilities. In some prior administration, we merged those two commissioners together with just one commissioner," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.
"I think if you pulled any member of the City Council, they would tell you that the workload for both commissioners to pull it into one has not really set up our commissioners to be able to be successful with everything that they need to be dealing with on both public services and public utilities as well as keeping up to date with the day to day operations."
Marchetti engaged with a former commissioner shortly after taking office in January and asked for him to offer suggestions about how the department could be run more efficiently.
One of his first questions was "One commissioner or two?"
"As a former commissioner, he quickly answered 'one' but he wanted to do his analysis and review of the department before it came forward. When he was done with his analysis, his report showed that he would stay with one commissioner but highly recommended the position of deputy commissioner. And so the deputy commissioner would report directly to the commissioner and handle much of the day-to-day operations and doing the field work and being on the ground with the staff," the mayor explained.
The parking medians are overgrown with weeds, the rain gardens look like jungles and greenery is invading the spaces around the building's exterior.
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Keith Girouard, longtime regional director of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center, has announced his retirement at the end of this month. click for more