It’s hard to believe that it’s a year since our beloved Youth Centre was burnt to the ground! The pic in the Telegraph article below captures something of the extraordinary horror of the site that greeted my eyes at 3am on that Sunday morning, April 21st 2013.
As the article points out, I knew who lit the fire as soon as I saw it. Indeed, it was the first thing I said that morning when I ran out onto my balcony and saw the blaze – “bloody Michael!”
I haven’t seen the lad since, and he hasn’t been picked up by the police either. There are reasons for that and I understand them. Even so, as the detectives remind me, there is no statute of limitations on arson and the lad will eventually be charged for this. It’s just a matter of time.
In reality of course he did us something of a favor. Our old church building was so old and unwieldy that it was an albatross around our necks financially, and now the insurance money should cover the cost of a purpose-built Youth and Community Centre to replace it. The Development Application for that new centre has already been lodged and hopefully we’ll begin building within a month or so!
Even so, I can’t think kindly of the perpetrator. It was a miracle that nobody was killed – an absolute miracle. Our Vietnamese neighbours would have been fried in their beds had not the head of the household been mysteriously awake when it all happened such that he could both alert the fire-brigade and evacuate his family. It was a miracle.
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