Church Ceiling Falls During Service

Church ceiling falls, injuring worshippers

By Ely Portillo
eportillo@charlotteobserver.com

Posted: Sunday, Jun. 13, 2010

A dozen people were taken to the hospital Sunday, some with serious injuries, after a ceiling collapsed on worshippers at a Hickory church, officials said.

About 200 people were seated in Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, in the Ridgeview community a few blocks south of downtown Hickory, said Hickory Police Lt. Bryan Adams.

"They were right in the middle of services when part of the ceiling tiles in the back, near the doors, fell," Adams said. "They collapsed down onto people in the pews."

The Rev. Antonio Logan, pastor of the church, said he was collecting an offering for the church's new public address system when the ceiling fell.

"I led off with the first offering in the plate," he said. "When I looked up, the whole ceiling was falling. The people who were sitting there couldn't even see what hit them. It was horrifying."

Sylvia Hewitt told Observer news partner WCNC-TV she was sitting in a pew when she heard a loud boom. "It sounded like a bomb or something," Hewitt said.

"There was dust everywhere, and people were trying to run out."

Dust and debris flew over the congregation "like a miniaturized 9/11," Logan said, and people initially panicked. But church leaders directed them to the exits.

Twelve people were taken by ambulance to hospitals around Hickory, fire department officials said. Some were seriously injured, but all were expected to survive. A number of people with minor injuries were either treated at the scene or declined treatment.

Logan said the injured were taken outside on the church grounds. Most suffered head wounds and cuts, he said.

According to the church's website, the present church building was constructed in 1956. A detailed investigation into the cause of the ceiling collapse will begin Monday morning, fire department officials said.

The red-brick church and its grounds were empty late Sunday afternoon, but the fire department's yellow tape and warning signs blocked the main entrance, pastor's office and a side door.