By Leah Elison
Investigators began to search this weekend for the reason the Latter-day Saint temple in Apia, Samoa, started on fire Thursday night, July 10,.
Officials suspect the fire began in the southwest corner of the temple near the ordinance rooms, where crews were constructing an addition to the temple.
'It is devastating to us,' said Jerry King, director of public affairs for the Pacific Islands Area. 'It was kind of everyone''s temple because the island is small, and the temple is on a main road, and everyone sees it every day.'
A team of investigators from Salt Lake arrived in Apia Saturday morning to help the police investigate the cause of the fire, as well as to assess the damage and to decide what to do with the temple.
Before the fire, the temple was scheduled to open in September and be rededicated in October.
Two men who were working on the addition discovered the fire Friday night around 7 p.m., King said.
The workers and some volunteers fought the blaze with water and fire extinguishers until they realized it had already spread to several rooms, he said.
King said he was in downtown Apia with Daniel Betham, president of the Apia, Samoa Temple, when Betham received news of the fire.
'When we arrived, the flames had broken through the roof and were lighting the sky,' King said. 'My heart just sunk as I saw those flames.'
Firefighters fought the flames for three hours before getting the fire under control and stayed until 1 a.m., trying to put out the flames, said King.
Of the crowd of people who gathered to watch the fire, more than 100 people, from a variety of faiths, volunteered to help the firefighters, he said.
'Every time the firefighters would try to leave, the people would tell them to stay,' Betham said.
The fire consumed everything except a few of the outer walls and the metal frame of the steeple, King said.
The statue of the angel Moroni at the top of the steeple tipped to the north as the heat of the fire warped the metal frame, he said, but it did not fall.
'The smoke from the fire made Moroni look very dark,' Betham said. 'But in the morning sunshine, he still stood. He looks like he has a little soot all over, but he is still sparkling.'
The buildings surrounding the temple, including the homes of the temple president, visiting patrons and temple missionaries, sustained no damage, in large part because of an unusual rainstorm that started as the flames came close to the buildings, Betham said.
Firefighters were not fighting the flames nearest to the homes because the fire truck could not maintain water pressure on that side of the temple and because flames on the far side of the temple were moving toward a store of diesel fuel, he said.
Just after the firefighters ordered an evacuation of the homes, the clouds rained for about 20 minutes, dousing the grass, trees and buildings and preventing the spread of the fire, Betham said.
'We could feel the heat and sparks go all over the place,' he said. 'All of a sudden, it rained. My daughter-in-law said there was only rain in the place close to the temple, and it was really raining. It was a miracle'
The public outpouring of grief has been touching to church members in the area, King said, and leaders have already received donations and offers to help with the clean up.
Betham said one of the donations came from the largest hotel in Samoa, Aggie Grey, and a letter of sympathy arrived the morning after the fire from the deputy prime minister of Samoa.
'No matter what church the people in Samoa belong to, they all respect each other''s beliefs,' Betham said. 'Everyone is very sad about the fire. We don''t have any malice or anyone that is happy that the temple has burned down. That is not in Samoa.'
The fire occurred on a particularly tragic day for the leaders of the church in the Pacific Islands, King said, because that morning, the final plans had been made for the reopening of the temple in September.
Betham and King were in downtown Apia, starting the initial work toward completing those plans, when they received news of the fire, he said.
'We really don''t know why this was allowed to be destroyed by fire,' Betham said. 'Our thoughts are not Heavenly Father''s thoughts. The Lord could have saved the temple if he had wanted to.'
The last time a similar tragedy occurred was in 1848 when the temple in Nauvoo, Ill., was destroyed by arson after the Saints had fled the city.
Betham said church members need to remember that in the history of the church, an operating temple has never been destroyed.
'Right now, although it is called the temple, it is not the Lord''s house,' he said. 'That is the purpose of the dedication. Nauvoo was destroyed by fire, but it was no longer the Lord''s house because it had been desecrated.'