By Michelle Sellers

The fourth, fifth and sixth graders of St. Gerard’s in Hollis didn’t get to march down 5th Avenue on St. Patrick’s Day as planned, and instead both the church and its band members are facing a long road ahead to bring their church back from a two-alarm fire.

St. Gerard’s, on 91 Street, had completed a $100,000 renovation three years ago, but $100,000 in renovations will have to begin again, once the funds can be found. The fire started just before 4 a.m. on March 16 and as the PRESS toured the damage, the religious books and garb that could be salvaged were laid out on the pews that were completely untouched by the fire. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel and the sacristy received the extent of the damage, while less than four feet away at the marble and wood altar minor water damage incurred that could be restored, the church believes.

But the musical equipment that would have been used for the fourth through sixth grade concert and cadet band members scheduled to march the day of the fire in the St. Patrick’s Day parade is still useable, according to the principal, and money will need to be found for repairs.

But Father Edward Doran has faith. “The church is not the building, it is the people,” he said, as he stood in the sanctuary, consulting with the designer who did the renovations for the church and will work on the repairs, the clean up crew and an officer from the 103rd Precinct.

Michael Pistorio of Brooklyn was at St. Gerard this week pitching in and helping out. Pistorio explained, “My family has been coming to Father Doran for years.” Before ministering in Hollis, Doran served at Park Slope’s St. Franco Xavier.  “He’s like a brother. When I heard the news, I couldn’t go to work, I had to come here,” Pistorio said.

Parishioners will celebrate Palm Sunday mass. PRESS Photo By Ira Cohen

Valentine Zet of Astoria’s Maintenance Plus Corp., will be working on the cleanup and told the PRESS, “I will donate myself and privately,” bringing the Church a bit closer to the needed restoration funds.

But Doran isn’t worried. “St. Patrick’s Cathedral was made with money donated by cleaning ladies. The immigrant Philippino, Haitian, Caribbean and European American people of the parish are not wealthy, but we’ll do our best and work very hard to get it.”

The sound of sirens from fire trucks and shattering glass woke Doran, Father John Mendoza and Monsignor  Eugene Feldhaus as they slept in the rectory of St. Gerard Majella Roman Catholic Church.  Befuddled by the proximity of the noise, Doran looked out the window and was surprised to see the fire engines adjacent to the rectory.

“The church will be unavailable for quite a bit of time,” Doran told the PRESS.  First constructed as a wood frame building in 1928 at 188-16 91st Avenue, it was a fire that changed the look of St. Gerard. Since 1938, the brick building that currently stands in Hollis has provided the community with an array of services, including an educational center atop the prayer facility that miraculously was not damaged by the fire.

Principal Catherine Schick of St. Gerard Majella School told the PRESS “We are lucky no one was hurt. The children could have been at school.” 

On regular weekdays, 275 pre-kindergarten through sixth grade students come to the church’s school facility.  This week they were dismissed due to “poor air quality,” according to Schick. “Although there was no damage [to the school], with the exception to a bathroom, it was not worth risking the children’s health,” she said.  “School will begin again Monday [March 25th].” 

“It was a well contained fire,” Schick commented.  “I was told a passerby called on a cell phone after seeing the smoke. We were very fortunate.”

“The two alarm fire sent 25 units or approximately 106 firemen,” to contain the blaze, according to a fire department spokesperson, adding that the preliminary investigation indicates, “The fire was caused by faulty wiring.”

According to Doran, Liturgical Designer Lawrence R. Hoy of Renovata Studios designed the renovations that were completed three years ago and will work on the repairs from the fire. Hoy, whose company is currently working on St. Joseph’s chapel near Ground Zero, won the national Modern Liturgy’s 1999-2000 Visual Arts Award for the Altar and Blessed Sacrament Chapel as seen in the September 1999 Ministry & Liturgy Magazine for his work at St. Gerard. 

“In disaster there are possibilities and opportunity to move forward,” Hoy explained, “The next design will only be better.” He told the PRESS that he believed the church’s pulpit and baptismal could be salvaged.

“I may design a separate [Blessed Sacrament] chapel and larger sacristy, after the charcoaled wall is removed [behind the altar],” Hoy said,  “We’ve learned a lot about disaster in the past six months.”

After Hoy completes the design and confers with an architect, it will take him six months to execute the repairs, he said.

Palm Sunday services on March 24th are being planned for the basement, and on the day of the fire itself, “I started the clean up,” janitorial worker Stanley Wnek said overlooking the basement of the church.  The water that flooded the basement of the facility was suctioned from the floor, which was then washed and waxed but a professional crew must do the rest, according to Wnek. 

Zet concluded, “This is a big job. Instead of making two companies bid on the job, they decided to use both companies.”  Using 40 workers, the cleaning should be completed within “four days,” estimated Zet.  “With two companies on the job, we may have time to spare.”