Looking at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church from the outside, you wouldn’t know that a fire inside shut down worship services there.

The fire happened at approximately 1:30 p.m. Feb. 5 in the center city Allentown church.

A notice on the church website states worship resumes Easter Sunday for the 10:30 a.m. service April 5 in the 37 S. Fifth St., Allentown, venue.

For a while, it was ashes to ashes.

Ashes, soot and smoke from the fire prevented Ash Wednesday services from being held in St. John’s. The building was closed for the Christian season of Lent because of restoration work after the fire. St. John’s parishioners have been worshiping at Christ Lutheran Church, 1245 Hamilton St., Allentown.

“As of our last conversation with the Allentown fire marshal, there was no determination of cause [for the fire],” Eric Gombert, Cantor, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, told a reporter for Lehigh Valley Press.

No damage estimate was available. The church had fire insurance.

When the fire happened, “There was no one in the building at the time. The building fire alarm system went off,” Gombert said.

Allentown Fire Department was automatically notified and responded. Scott Boka, Sexton, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, went to the building. “He let them [the firefighters] in. There was smoke. The fire was in a utility area on the lower level of the building,” said Gombert.

“The smoke is what went upstairs. There was no structural damage. The fire itself was contained to that utility area,” Gombert said.

The Allentown Fire Department Strong social media page describes the St. John’s fire thusly: “Small fire in a utility room.”

The fire department apparently extinguished the blaze with one fire extinguisher.

Doors, windows and the hatch that leads up to the church spire were opened. The electric power was turned off.

“We had to have an electrician out to the building to isolate damaged circuits and restore power to the building so that we could have heat,” said Gombert.

Destroyed in the fire was a portable folding work bench, two ladders, several electrical circuits, wiring that’s part of fire alarm system, control wiring for lighting of the worship area and control wiring for a portion of the organ.

“To the best of our knowledge at this point, the organ was not damaged, but the organ was not turned on,” Gombert said. Testing of the organ was to have taken place March 23.

The Ernest M. Skinner organ was installed when the church was built in 1939. The St. John’s congregation, founded in 1855, celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2025.

“More than 25 pieces of air filtration equipment were running in the building from the day after the fire until March 20,” said Gombert.

Eastern Diversified Services, LLC, Souderton, did site and facility cleanup. “They had a dozen or so workers in the building for just over two weeks,” Gombert said.

Cleaned were church pews, side walls in the sanctuary and carpets. “Anything that was not behind a closed door, the sanctuary and galleries in the front, there was soot in all those places,” Gombert said.

Diefenderfer Electrical Contractors, Inc., Allentown, replaced conduits and wires.

“Our choirs [St. John’s and Christ Lutheran] have been rehearsing and singing together. Pastor Brad [the Rev. Bradley Carroll, pastor, St. John’s] and myself have been participating. Even the [St. John’s] quilting group [for Lutheran World Relief Quilt Program] relocated to a former classroom at Christ Lutheran,” said Gombert.

St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church information: 610-435-1587, https://www.stjohnsallentown.org/