By Brenna R. Kelly and Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Firefighter/Paramedic Brent Schafer (left) and Capt. Mark Seeger, both with the Bellevue-Dayton Fire Department, search for hot spots in the rubble at the First Baptist Church. (Glenn Hartong photo) Photo gallery of church fire.

DAYTON, Ky. - As they watched fire shoot through the roof and black smoke pour from the shattered stained-glass windows, First Baptist Church members and residents tried to console one another: It was just a building.

"Our faith is not in the building," said Pastor Allan Daigle. "We don't know what our next 24 hours will bring, but our faith is still in God."

By the time the flames were extinguished early Friday afternoon, only the stone shell of the 109-year-old building remained.

But church members vow to carry on.

"First Baptist Church of Dayton, Kentucky, is here," Daigle said of his congregation, which formed in 1850. "We may not be in this building, but we will be a presence in this community.

"We have been around for over 150 years and this fire is not going to stop us."

The church, the oldest in this Ohio river town, caught fire Friday as workers were repairing the roof. No one was injured in the blaze that caused more than $500,000 in damages.

Fire officials continue to investigate but suspect that workers using torches started the fire.

The building held a pipe organ more than a century old and priceless stained-glass windows that had been recently restored.

"We realize that the church is more than a building, but it's like losing your first-born child," said Daigle, who has been pastor for four years.

Even as the building smoldered, several churches and businesses offered the 300-member congregation a place to meet Sunday.

The smoke that could be seen from downtown Cincinnati brought hundreds in the 6,000-person town to Dayton Avenue where they mourned the loss of the historic church.

"Those stained glass windows can't be replaced, they were beautiful," said Bertha Taylor, who along with her daughter was baptized at the church last year.

"We were just drawn to this little church," Taylor said. "They made you feel welcome from the very first time you walked in the door."

It seemed that everyone in the town knew someone who went to the church, lived by the church or had been married in the church.

"It's a major devastation to the city of Dayton," said Mayor Ken Rankle. "The church has been here since 1895 and obviously it's a total loss."

Others hoped that the shell could be left standing and the inside restored.

"I think it'll be rebuilt, the basic structure will still be left," said Dayton Councilman Dennis Ashford. "It'll be as good a new in a year."

The building was insured and the church will rebuilt in some way, though it's too early to say how, Daigle said.

Workers who had been repairing the roof reported the fire just after 10 a.m., said Bellevue-Dayton Fire Chief Denny Lyn.

About 75 firefighters from at least six fire departments battled the blaze. A fire wall and firefighters' efforts stopped the blaze from spreading to the attached gym and educational building.

At some point the roof collapsed, destroying any hope of saving the sanctuary, Lyn said.

Daigle was at home about a block from the church when a deacon told him about the fire. They hurried to the church where smoke was pouring from the attic. Then it moved to the sanctuary.

"This is not something you walk up to and say, 'The church is on fire,' " Daigle said. "You look up and say, 'Oh what a tragedy.' "

People who wanted to help called the church after news media posted the phone number on Web sites and on television. The volume was so great that it jammed the phone line, the pastor said.

With the fire out, residents who felt powerless to help save the building turned their attention to the firefighters.

Dayton Councilwoman Penny Hurtt brought a tray of coffee.

"I went to the local restaurants and said, 'We need coffee for the firemen.' No questions, they just started filling up cups," said Hurtt, whose 92-year-old grandmother belongs to the church.

Leslie Ackerson and her brother-in-law Joe, a Husman delivery man, brought boxes of pretzels and chips for the firefighters.

"It's a small town, people try to pull together as a community," said Leslie Ackerson, whose grandfather was a preacher at the church. "We saw it huge in '97 when the flood hit. I'm not saying this is just as big of a tragedy, but it is - it affects the whole community."

And the loss of the landmark will leave a hole in Dayton, residents said.

"It was always just the pretty, old church that has been there forever," said Carol Foster, 65, of Bellevue, as she as she waited to have her hair styled at Split Ends Family Hair Styling on Sixth Avenue. "You passed it so much no one really thought about its significance to the community. We took its architecture for granted."

E-mail bkelly@enquirer.com