Cost of restoring fire-damaged church could reach $400,000 - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Crews say the bill to restore a downtown church damaged by fire could near a half-million dollars.

Outside St. John Catholic Church downtown, the sound of healing was made by compressors running in the back of a clean out truck. Restoration crews are working to fix damage left by an arsonist, which could cost $400,000.

James Holmes with Hays and Sons Restoration says when it comes to a fire, "There is no small fire, first of all."

At Hays and Sons, Chad Young showed Eyewitness News one of the tools used in the clean-up.

"It's called a chem sponge. It's made to take the smoke and soot off of the products. You don't get it wet. You use it, set and scrape it down using the corner edge," Young said.

Hays is not working at St. John, but it is one of the city's biggest fire and smoke clean-up contractors and is not surprised at the possible $400,000 cost of rehabbing the church.

"You are cleaning everything just to make sure it's not damaged," Ryan Madkins, one of Hays and Sons specialists said. "Walls, woodwork, anything that needs to be cleaned gets cleaned and deodorized, so it's done the way it's supposed to be."

If you look at the video shot right after the fire was put out, you can see smoke filling the entire sanctuary. Damage was not limited to the rear area of the church where the fire was actually set.

"Anywhere there is air, that smoke is going to go," says Madkins. "It will radiate all the way through the entire building."

Walls may not even look damaged to the naked eye, so crews first need to rub them down with special chemicals that make smoke damage visible.

"The big thing is going to be your labor," said Holmes, an estimator for Hays and Sons. "You're actually going to have to spend time doing the work. It's not necessarily material, it always comes down to labor when it comes down to cleaning."