New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

An unattended incense stick ignited a padded chair in a room on the second floor of the temple. This set off a sprinkler head which extinguished the fire. The chair is ruined and there is a burnt place on the floor, but the key thing is that the temple itself was saved.

Sri Krsna das was passing the room where the fire started saw smoke and kicked in the door. He went for help but the sprinkler went off and doused it.

When the temple was built, Jaya Murari had successfully lobbied to have the sprinkler system installed. 2 years ago, Tejomaya had renovated the system so it was fully operational. Without the foresight of these two devotees, RVC might have been homeless tonight, as the structure is of wooden construction.

The Limestone Volunteer fire department showed up and might have been able to save most of the building if the sprinkler hadn’t extinguished the fire, but the damage would have been much more extensive, both from the fire and the greater amount of water they would have poured onto a larger fire,

By the time the sprinkler was shut off, hundreds of gallons of water had poured out. This drained through the ceiling to the temple room below, and all the devotees gathered to mop up the water with towels.

A guest visiting from India was right in the middle of it all and got a memorable experience to share when he returns home, but RVC is safe for another night.