photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World Photo

Stull United Methodist Church, 1596 E. 250 Road, had damage to its tower and entrance Monday evening after a fire that shut the road down for several hours on July 25, 2022.

A fire at the Stull United Methodist Church led to the closure of Stull Road for several hours on Monday afternoon.

North 1600 Road, Stull Road, west of Lawrence was shut down near the 200 block around 2:30 p.m. while crews worked to extinguish the fire, said George Diepenbrock with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

The fire was extinguished by 4 p.m., according to Chief Mike Baxter of Consolidated Fire District 1, and the road reopened around 5:15 p.m.

Baxter said in an email that a neighbor reported the fire at the church, but the cause was unknown. The church, built in 1921 at 1596 E. 250 Road, had damage to the tower and main entrance, but a structural assessment would need to be completed to know the full damage, Baxter said. No injuries were reported.

At the scene, Baxter said that crews responded to the fire around 1:45 p.m.

“We actually had crews in the area from another call. They just cleared another medical incident right down the road. And so that call came out and the response time was within just a few minutes,” Baxter said.

He said that crews worked on the fire for over two hours but they kept the damage confined to the tower and entrance of the building.

“We had some difficulties because it is a confined space up there. There is some significant damage to the tower area. We had concerns with some structural instability of the building,” Baxter said.

Church members were on the scene quickly and provided firefighters with blueprints and layouts of the church that helped crews navigate the building, Baxter said.

The fire will be investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) because it was at a church, Baxter said.

Brenna Wulfkuhle said she is a trustee with the church and that she and other members of the church were able to get to the scene soon after the building was reported on fire.

“We were notified that our bell tower was on fire this afternoon. Most of the damage remains in our bell tower. … We’re thankful to the first responders that were here and got in real quickly and it got extinguished. At this point in time, we just ask for everybody’s thoughts and prayers as we figure out how we’re going to proceed and move forward,” Wulfkuhle said.