Back in July 9th 2023 St Francis Church suffered one of its worst times when the front of the church was destroyed by fire due to an electrical fire which caused the lower altar to fall through the floor into the lower hall and leave a massive hole in the floor where the altar was located.

Luckily, no one was hurt during this horrific and devastating event as the building was empty at the time due to the time of the day when shortly after people would have been attending the morning service.

The fire service made excellent time getting to the burning building which came from stations at Crownhill, Camelshead and Plympton plus both paramedics and the police were in attendance providing medical cover by South West Ambulance Service and security by Devon and Cornwall Police.

Sadly the front of the church was severely damaged by the fire, smoke and unfortunately by the water which was used by the fire service that fantastically save the church whilst the remaining parts of the parish building was unusable due to the smoke damage which was caused by the fire.

The church was lucky thanks to the help and support of a local community centre and school, as they allowed St Francis to use their facilities to hold services and allow the parishioners to continue worshipping together. Woodland Fort Community Centre on Crownhill Road and Knowle Primary School on Ringmoor Way both pulled together and allow churchgoers to attend their venue and continue worshipping together in a warm, safe place.

Within months, work commenced, and the church starts coming back to life with the main church hall becoming available initially and towards the end of 2025, the main part of the church was reopened by Bishop of Oswestry.

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