"Vandalism rendered a Silverton church unusable this month, forcing parishioners to worship elsewhere.
Silverton Police Chief Jeff Fossholm said a suspect or suspects broke into the Silverton Seventh-day Adventist Church through a classroom window and emptied several fire extinguishers throughout several rooms and a hallway.
“The Sanctuary was not actually damaged, but the white chemical powder from the fire extinguishers down the hall drifted throughout the building leaving a coating of the caustic chemical all over the place which needs to be cleaned up prior to letting people back in,” Fossholm said.
“My guess is that the timeline as to when they can get back in the building relates more to when a clean-up company can get a team on the project to do the work.”
Silverton Assistant Fire Chief Ed Grambusch said the two primary chemical ingredients in dry chemical extinguishers are sodium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate. The former, when used in fire extinguishers, is a highly refined chemical which makes for very small particulate matter. It may also contain trace elements of lead or other foreign materials.
The church contracted Summit Cleaning and Restoration, whose workers were wearing protective air masks Wednesday as they labored inside and out at the church. By midday, they had piled up a mound of church carpeting outside, one piece of the process in restoring the building back to a healthy environment.
Damages to the building are estimated to be more than $50,000, according to Jonathan Russell, assistant to the president for multimedia communications for the Oregon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists." StatesmanJournal
As saith the proverb of the ancients,
Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked:
1 Samuel 24:13
