A Grand Rapids firefighter was struck in the head by a falling brick and injured while battling a massive overnight blaze that gutted a 132-year-old church building in the Heartside neighborhood, though officials say the firefighter is expected to recover. Nineteen fire crews converged on the structure near Sheldon Avenue SE and Oakes Street SE after flames broke out shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday, ultimately collapsing a floor and reducing the historic building to ruins by morning.
According to Charisma Magazine, the injured firefighter was hurt during overnight operations as conditions inside the building deteriorated. Crews had initially pushed an interior attack, running several hose lines into the basement and across the main floor in an effort to knock down the flames at their source. As reported by the Detroit Free Press, fire had already spread through the walls and void spaces of the aging structure by the time crews arrived, and off-duty firefighters were called in to staff extra machines for relief as the operation stretched into the early morning hours.
That interior push lasted roughly two hours before crumbling conditions forced a retreat. A section of the floor gave way, and crews pulled back to fight the fire from a defensive position outside the building rather than risk further entry, per the same account from Charisma Magazine. Grand Rapids Fire Department Battalion Chief Kathleen Thompson said the department reached approximately 90 percent containment by 6 a.m. Thursday, a benchmark reported by News Channel 3 WWMT.
A Frantic Call for Help Sparked a Fast Response
Before any alarm system or 911 call could set the response in motion, a passerby ran to a nearby Grand Rapids Fire Department station just before 11 p.m. Wednesday and pounded on the door to alert crews inside, according to the same WWMT report. That direct alert let firefighters reach the scene within minutes. Rescue Company 2 arrived to find a large church with heavy smoke and fire already showing from the basement windows, per the Free Press.
The building at 108 Sheldon Ave SE, near the Grand Rapids city archives and records center, was constructed in 1894, according to the archives' own records as cited by the Free Press. It first opened as All Souls Universalist Church before later serving as a Seventh-day Adventist sanctuary, a history documented by the Grand Rapids Public Library. LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church, whose main sanctuary sits next door on LaGrave Avenue in downtown Grand Rapids, owned the historic structure, and the fire did not spread to that adjacent main campus, per a church statement.
A Planned Homeless Respite Center Was Lost
Beyond the physical loss of a 132-year-old landmark, the fire wiped out a building with an active future. LaGrave CRC Pastor Peter M. Jonker revealed that the congregation was actively preparing to transform the structure into a community respite center for people facing housing crises, according to Charisma Magazine.
That planned project would have built on the church's existing record in downtown homelessness response. In November 2024, LaGrave CRC leased another property it owns nearby at 121 Sheldon Avenue, known as “The Vault,” at a discounted rate to Dégagé Ministries and Mel Trotter Ministries to run a daytime shelter for up to 80 unhoused residents, an arrangement supported by a Grand Rapids municipal grant and reported by Corp! Magazine. The destroyed building would have added to that footprint of support for the neighborhood's unhoused population.
Cause Still Unknown as Water Blocks Investigators
Fire investigators have not yet determined what sparked the blaze. Origin-and-cause personnel must wait for standing water used during suppression efforts to recede from the basement before they can safely enter the ruins to investigate, according to a report shared in the Grand Rapids Informed Facebook group and cited by Newsradio WOOD 1300. The response involved 15 units and roughly 40 personnel by that account, a detail that runs alongside Battalion Chief Thompson's count of 19 responding crews.
The Grand Rapids blaze comes just 17 days after another major overnight fire destroyed the Byron Center Bible Church in nearby Kent County, where weather factors including potential lightning strikes were investigated as a cause, according to WZZM 13. Grand Rapids also has a history of investigating suspicious fires at houses of worship: in April 2018, Grand Rapids Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives launched a joint arson investigation after fire was intentionally set at the entrance doors of Servant's Community Church, WZZM 13 reported at the time. No cause has been attributed to Wednesday night's fire, and officials have not indicated whether federal investigators will be involved this time.
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