Deputy Chief Chad Courtemanche said crews were called to the Emanuel Lutheran Church a little after 3 p.m., on an alarm call after the alarm system detected sprinkler flow.
Crews arrived to find heavy smoke in the building and soon learned the fire in the pipe organ was being held in check by sprinklers, Courtemanche said.
As a result of the sprinklers, “the fire was burning slow and creating a lot of smoke, so we vented the smoke and put out the fire,” Courtemanche said.
There were no reported injuries.
Crews used a large, truck-mounted ventilation fan designed for large buildings to vent a large amount of smoke from the church. Courtemanche said damage appeared to be light, under the circumstances, with fire damage confined mostly to the organ, and mostly just smoke and water damage elsewhere.
He said much of the wooden church, and even some books not far from the blaze, appeared to have suffered minimal damage.
Pastor Daniel W. Spigelmyer Jr., said the pipe organ is about 150 years old, and is a major sentimental and historical loss for the church.
Crews remained at the scene for about two hours.
