Charleston churches face unique fire hazards

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Charleston Fire Department does not routinely inspect historic churches for safety, according to Charleston Fire Department Chief Fire Marshal Mike Julazadeh.

"We’re not routinely going out and inspecting a church, but if they were to call us or were next up on the list to be inspected, then we’d end up in the building for an inspection," Julazadeh said.

He said officials instead focus inspections on new constructions.

"Permits drive a lot of our inspection activity," he said. "Inspections are typically driven based on request and by permits and constructions."

The images of this week's fire at Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral still fresh, Pastor Marshall Blalock if First Baptist Church in downtown Charleston says, "It was heart breaking to see it happen. Just like in in Paris, if it were to catch fire this old wood would be hard to stop the flames."

Blalock said his the floors of the church are 200-year-old wood, but fire sprinklers are installed throughout the church building.

"Safety’s a primary importance," he said. The church also serves as a school.

"Churches actually pose some additional hazards," Julazadeh said. "If we have large open areas, areas into steeples, often what we find with church fires is the fire that starts to run in void spaces or above a ceiling area can often be well-involved before it's ever reported."

He also said Charleston's tight streets pose another issue should a church ever catch fire.

"Any area we have historic structures, we often face a lot of challenges with narrow streets and confined areas where we have very little separation between buildings."

He advised all downtown churches to implement a fire evacuation and safety plan.

"We consider it a treasure," Blalock said of his church. "We’re good stewards of it to pass it on to the generations after us and we want to do all we can to protect it, but most of all to protect the people that are in it."