NJ community praises firefighters who saved school after church fire
FLORENCE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) -- Smoke continues to pour out of a church in South Jersey Wednesday afternoon that was decimated by a raging fire. Despite that, church leaders are sharing a positive update.
Firefighters were able to save a school on the property in Florence Township.
Investigators remain on the scene. The church campus means so much to the community.
Leaders are praising the quick work of those firefighters and we're learning exactly how they were able to save this school.
High above the ruins, federal and state investigators took pictures and sifted through the charred remains of the Fountain of Life Center as flames continue to burn inside the church.
"I got two boys that graduated Life Center Academy," Mike Keane said. "I got a girl that's there now, we were married here."
Keane's family is a third-generation member of the church. He was one of the first couples married in the new sanctuary in 1990 and says it's been an emotional toll ever since Monday when the fast-moving flames destroyed the house of worship.
"It's much more than a building to us," Keane said. "It's not just an edifice it means something to us."
"Looking at the fire two nights ago I didn't know what the heck was going to happen," Matthew Boudwin said. "But walking through there today I know there is a future and our kids are going to graduate here, so that's a good thing."
For the first time, Boudwin, the Headmaster of the Life Center Academy was allowed inside the school Wednesday. The building is connected to the church.
CBS News Philadelphia has learned smoke made it into the school but there is minimal damage after firefighters cut a trench in the roof and bulldozed part of a hallway to stop the flames from spreading.
"To essentially make a barrier between that building and the school building to save it," Boudwin said.
A silver lining and a bit of hope after days of despair.
"The fact that they were able to take a stance and save the structure for the rest of the school is a miracle," Keane said.
The school is pre-K-12th grade. Classes have been canceled for the rest of the week.
The headmaster says there will be a meeting Thursday night for school families to discuss a target date of when students may be able to return to the building.
