The blaze started at about 7:30 p.m. in the back of the church, possibly from a lightning strike, officials said.
Fire caused significant damage to the church’s back wall and also damaged the front and side gables, Temple Fire & Rescue spokesman Santos Soto said Friday. No one was injured.
Firefighters from several departments — including Temple, Troy, Rogers, Westphalia and Rosebud — responded swiftly to the church, 17454 State Highway 53, and got the blaze under control by 9 p.m., Soto said.
An investigation into the fire continued Friday, Bell County Fire Marshal Chris Mahlstedt said.
A preliminary evaluation showed that the upstairs Sunday school rooms are lost. The sanctuary and rooms underneath the Sunday school rooms have smoke and water damage, said the Rev. Brad Herridge, pastor of the church.
No dollar amount for the damage was available yet, Mahlstedt said.
Herridge stressed how the church is such an integral part of Zabcikville and the surrounding community.
“It’s a pretty big emotional (structure) for a lot of people,” Herridge said when he revisited the damage Friday morning. “People have gotten married here, buried here and baptized here. It’s an important building for a lot of people so not being able to meet for the past three weeks has been hard.”
But Herridge, 41, continued to stress the message he conveyed the previous night to his parishioners on Facebook
“The church really isn’t the building. The membership is the church, the people are the church and you all are the church,” Herridge said. “So we’ve been living that out for three weeks because of COVID-19, and we’re just going to live it out a little while longer.”
The church was established in 1892 with 52 Czech immigrant families that settled in the area. They were encouraged by the Rev. Juren and the Rev. Adolph Chlumsky. A first church building was constructed in 1893.
The church membership continued to grow to 92 families, prompting the construction of the current building in 1931.
Mahlstedt returned to Ocker Brethren Church Friday morning to get a better view of the rural church. His plan was to rule out a couple of things as to the fire’s cause. He also wanted to interview two witnesses who said they saw a lightning strike in the area at about the time the church’s blaze began.
A resident who lives in the area is an agent with the FBI and heard about the fire. He stopped by for about 15 minutes to look at the church, although he was not there in an official capacity, Mahlstedt said.
The fire marshal said he contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about the fire because the federal agency investigates church fires in the country.
Last year, two Central Texas churches — the Church of the Visitation in Westphalia and a newly restored former church, First Presbyterian/Central Christian Church in Bartlett — were destroyed by fire.
Ocker Brethren is less than seven miles away on SH 53 from the Westphalia church that burned.
Herridge, Ocker Brethern’s pastor, extended his gratitude toward the local fire departments who rallied together to control the fire.
“If it weren’t for the fire departments, it could have been a lot worse,” Herridge said. “The volunteer fire departments from Troy and Rogers were the first to jump on it. The volunteer fire department from Rosebud even brought their water tanker. I was expecting to drive up and see the church in flames and on the ground.”