An accidental fire ravaged a landmark church in New Jersey early New Year's Day, and it turns out that electrical and air conditioning work was underway without a permit.
The fire started just before 5 a.m. at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in West Orange, fire officials said. The roof collapsed and the structure was gutted. Only a shell of the building remained by Friday morning.
"I'm ready to cry, I'm ready to cry," one woman outside the ruins said.
It took seven fire companies three hours to extinguish the blaze at the church, which was purchased about a year ago by the Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal Church.
No one was inside the church when the fire started. Investigators are still attempted to determine the cause of the blaze.
Crews have been working on the church's air conditioning and electrical system, said Douglas Hernandez, a chaplain and trustee at the church. NBC 4 New York learned that the city had issued a stop-work order on the repairs for failure to obtain permits for the work. Hernandez said he had no information about the stop-work order.
Investigators say it's too early to determine if that work or something else started the fire, but they say work on electrical junction boxes last spring before the stop-work order was issued may have contributed to the fire.
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There had also been a New Year's Eve celebration at the church Thursday night.
The church has been described as an "outstanding example" of Gothic Revival architecture and in 1996 was listed as one of the 10 most endangered historic sites in the state by Preservation New Jersey.
Construction of the brownstone church was completed in 1827. An addition to the church, including a steeple, was built in 1861 and attributed to renowned architect Richard Upjohn. It was designed by the architect who designed the Trinity Church in lower Manhattan.
