Do you know what’s going on? At your local church’s auditorium Would you believe Christian Rock Concerts? With Pyrotechnics!

Do you know what’s going on?

At your local church’s auditorium

 

Would you believe Christian Rock Concerts?

With Pyrotechnics!

By Nick Markowitz Jr.

Fire Investigator

 

I have a rather large Evangelical AOG church in take care of the alarms at in  Butler County and it seems like every time I go in there to work on the alarm I find another way they are violating any of a dozen building codes in a major way.

I walk in on a Sunday night after getting a low battery signal to find they are setting up for a Christian Rock Concert for the youth and find the Assoc. Pastor with the battery for the Burglar Alarm in his hand getting ready to shoot off a Steel Tube filled with Green Dot Gun Powder so there would be a Pyrotechnics spark show during the concert  the there holding in the Auditorium which originally served as the church till the current structure was expanded. Hey Nick check this out as the Assoc. Pastor hits the wires on the battery and a large sparks show goes off and hits the ceiling.

While never had them go up that far before. Then again he never used Green Dot powder which I am told is more powerful than most gun powders.

Needless to say I advise the Assoc. Pastor the Senior Pastor and several board members

What they are doing is illegal with out proper permits and precautions in place since UCC is now in Effect and I get the well we have been doing this for 9 years with out incident we even set these off during the Easter Cantata (Passion Show) .

All fine and well but I remind them again what they are doing is illegal and dangerous and if there were a fire caused by this little show there insurance carrier does not cover them for such activities and they would have no coverage In fact the person setting off the display  could end up being arrested.. Total dead silence as usual.

See there up in the country and rules do not apply to them and UCC is nothing more than a bother. This church is filled with numerous electrical and every other Building Code Violation and  the township  just lets them do what they want in the church in the auditorium and in the Christian school they run .The township has received numerous calls and does nothing.

They have been reported to the state after members have left because of various issues and the state does nothing.

Is it no wonder then when we loose firefighters in church fires in this state .

There is no separation of church and state the constitution states freedom to choose a religion the notion of separation of church and state has been forwarded by the ACLU and others.

It comes down to this. When we have churches that flagrantly violate laws and code officials that allow them to do what they want .We will continue to loose firefighters in this state to church fires. I will not be part of it and this will be another church I will distance myself from.

I will have nothing to do with my wife’s Presbyterian Church in the City of Pittsburgh for the same reason because of continual refusal to follow even basic fire safety codes.

The recent report released by NIOSH regarding the Fire at Ebenezer Baptist church in Pittsburgh’s Hill District specifically cited as part of its report the fact Pittsburgh does not enforce building codes in churches.

These may be gods house of worship but any given Sunday you can have  any where from 50-2500 people in some houses of worship. I think they deserve the right to be safe in a church just as they are in any other public entity.