{"id":23668,"date":"2019-04-26T15:01:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T19:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23668"},"modified":"2019-04-26T15:01:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T19:01:59","slug":"inside-aurora-from-the-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-from-the-ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: From the Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many people last week, I\nwas transfixed by the horrible events that unfolded in Paris, as flames from\nthe burning Notre Dame Cathedral lit up the night sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What immediately struck me\nwere the similarities to events that occurred here in Aurora almost exactly five\nyears ago to the day, which resulted in the loss of Aurora United Church (AUC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both structures were located\nin the very heart of their respective municipalities, and had served their\ncommunities for many years. Notre Dame was 850 years old. While the AUC\nbuilding had stood on Yonge Street for a relatively shorter time, its 140 years\nrepresented a period almost as old as the Town it served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of the fires,\nboth churches were undergoing extensive repairs and renovations. It is known\nthat work on the roof ignited the Aurora fire. While investigations are still\nunderway, at the time of writing this it is believed that the Notre Dame fire\nwas also associated with repair work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recovery of priceless\nartefacts was another similar theme in both fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, many of the\nParis church\u2019s priceless artifacts were able to be saved during the blaze.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to how quickly the fire\nspread, this was not possible in Aurora. However, some items on site were\nretrieved from the ashes, including Communion sets, an account book from the\n1800s, and a set of hand bells. Additional artefacts, mainly in the form of\nhistorical documents, have since been donated by members of the community from\ntheir personal collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most positive similarity\nin both fires was that no members of the public nor any first responders were\nkilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fires that occurred five\nyears apart did not completely consume the structures, with a number of walls\nremaining standing. However, in Aurora damage to these areas was extensive\nand it was deemed necessary for safety reasons to demolish those parts of the\nchurch that survived the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Paris, pictures show that while the spire and roof are gone,\nthe rest of the exterior walls of Notre Dame are largely intact. Although\ninspections are still being conducted, it is hoped and expected that much of\nthe original building can be saved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One optimistic note in both cases was that once the blazes were\nextinguished there was immediate confirmation from local officials that the\nstructures would be rebuilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although his country has far greater resources to draw on, the\nFrench President has set an extremely ambitious (and I feel unlikely) timeline\nof five years for the Notre Dame repairs to be completed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here in Aurora it is now five years since the AUC fire, and while\nmuch planning, design, fundraising and approvals have moved forward in that\ntime, actual construction has yet to begin. It is hoped that formal\ngroundbreaking will take place this summer, with all work being completed in about\ntwo years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is too early to know what form repairs may take to the\noriginal Notre Dame building in Paris, or how the final version may differ from\nthe original.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting with a blank slate, the new AUC will incorporate some\ndesign elements of the old building, but will be updated in part to allow it to\nbe used as a more flexible community space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the losses of both buildings are tragic, it is inspiring to\nsee their respective communities coming together spiritually and physically to\nrebuild these landmarks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will continue to watch the progress of the rebuilds of both\nmonuments with great interest, and look forward to seeing both churches fully re-established on their respective\nmunicipality\u2019s skylines as prominent and inspiring centres of worship,\ncommunity and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott\nat: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston Like many people last week, I was transfixed by the horrible events that unfolded in Paris, as flames from the burning Notre Dame Cathedral lit up the night sky. What immediately struck me were the similarities to events that occurred here in Aurora almost exactly five years ago to the day, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-69K","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 09:21:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}