Patrick Lavery
Stanstead Journal (Reprinted with permission)

The steeple of Stanstead South United Church caught fire early Tuesday evening when it was struck by lightning.

Stanstead firefighters arrived on the scene. The Derby Line fire department arrived minutes later with their ladder truck. The Stanstead crew went into the church to check for anymore damage. When the ladder truck arrived, the fire was easily extinguished. The top of the steeple sustained heavy damage. The weathervane that sits atop the steeple now hangs at an angle.

“I was sitting on the porch of my mother’s house,” said Mary Becker, a resident of Derby Line. “We saw the bolt come down. It shook the house.” Becker said the bolt was huge. “At first we thought it hit a transformer or something, but then my husband saw smoke,” she said.

Becker hopes the damage to the church isn’t extensive. “I was married there,” she said.

Stanstead town councilor Ben Kramer, who lives next door to the church, heard the lightning on his way home from work. “I knew it hit somewhere close,” he said. No injuries have been reported, as the church was empty at the time.


(Photo: Stanstead Journal)