Owner of fire-hit Alexandria church launches fundraising appeal to save it

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The owner of a historic Alexandria church that was engulfed in a catastrophic fire has told how he is praying it can be saved.Andrew Cuthbert watched from his Northern Ireland home as a huge blaze, which police are investigating, ripped through the B-listed former St Andrew’s Church on Main Street on Saturday evening.Residents lined the streets and watched in horror as a huge plume of smoke billowed into the sky from the derelict building, home to memories of events and occasions for residents across the area.Emergency crews raised to the scene with firefighters returning yesterday (Monday) to extinguish a small fire after receiving reports of smoke emitting from the roof.Andrew initially launched a £200,000 ‘St Andrews Church Disaster Fund’ appeal to help with the cost of rebuilding it - but today reduced the crowdfunding target to £10,000.Speaking to the Lennox Herald yesterday, he told how he has been left “devastated” by the latest fire, which came less than a week after another blaze on Easter Sunday - which police are treating as wilful.The building is at the centre of £750,000 community plans – with Andrew admitting he faces a nervous wait to find out if it can be saved.Investigators from Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were still at the church as we went to print yesterday (Monday), with council officers set to determine its fate later this week.Andrew said he felt powerless watching events unfold from across the Irish Sea.He said: “We’ve been re-boarding the church for the last few weeks every couple of days as break-ins have been quite frequent.“But this time it was catastrophic.“I’m devastated.