Grue Church fire
Encyclopedia
The Grue Church fire happened in Grue, Norway
Grue, Norway
Grue is a municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Solør. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kirkenær ....

 on 26 May 1822 and took the lives of between 113 and 117 churchgoers. It is the biggest fire disaster
Conflagration
A conflagration or a blaze is an uncontrolled burning that threatens human life, health, or property. A conflagration can be accidentally begun, naturally caused , or intentionally created . Arson can be accomplished for the purpose of sabotage or diversion, and also can be the consequence of...

 in the history of Norway
History of Norway
The history of human settlement in what is present day Norway goes back at least 11,000 years, to the late Paleolithic. Archaeological finds in the county of Møre og Romsdal have been dated to 9,200 BC and are probably the remains of settlers from Doggerland, an area now submerged in the North Sea,...

.

The church

The old Grue Church was located close to Skulstad, north-west of Kirkenær
Kirkenær
Kirkenær is the administrative centre of Grue municipality, Norway. Its population is 1,252....

 in Solør
Solør
Solør is a Norwegian traditional district consisting of the valley between Elverum in the north and Kongsvinger in the south. It is part of the county of Hedmark, and includes the municipalities Våler, Åsnes and Grue.-Glomma valley :...

. The oldest section of the church stemmed from the 13th century and was built using the stave method
Stave church
A stave church is a medieval wooden church with a post and beam construction related to timber framing. The wall frames are filled with vertical planks. The load-bearing posts have lent their name to the building technique...

. The church was rebuilt around 1600 with the addition of two transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...

s built with round, hand-worked, logs
Log cabin
A log cabin is a house built from logs. It is a fairly simple type of log house. A distinction should be drawn between the traditional meanings of "log cabin" and "log house." Historically most "Log cabins" were a simple one- or 1½-story structures, somewhat impermanent, and less finished or less...

 and one tall central tower
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....

. Above the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 and the two transepts there were wide galleries, allowing the church to house 600-700 people.

Both the nave and the transepts had entrance doors which swung inwards. When in open position they also blocked the entrance door to the galleries. The leaded frame stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 windows were placed high up on the wall and were covered by an iron grid on the outside. The exterior of the church was covered with pine tar
Pine tar
Pine tar is a sticky material produced by the high temperature carbonization of pine wood in anoxic conditions . The wood is rapidly decomposed by applying heat and pressure in a closed container; the primary resulting products are charcoal and pine tar.Pine tar consists primarily of aromatic...

. Calculations that were later done estimated that 17 ton
Ton
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...

s of tar had been applied between 1600 and 1822.

The fire

On Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...

 the church was filled to capacity. It was a bright and hot day early in the summer. In the middle of the sermon that was preached by the vicar, Iver Hesselberg, a fire broke out on the outer wall of the southern transept, and soon the fire broke in. Within 10–15 minutes the church was completely engulfed and soon burnt to the ground.

Evacuation was hampered by the way in which the doors had been constructed, and a panic arose inside the church where everyone fought each other to escape. The official death count is 113, however the figures 116 and 117 are also mentioned. Among the people who were incinerated there were a mere 7 adult men. At least 45 of the fatalities were children under 16 years. Many were trapped in the stairs coming down from the galleries, where the unmarried women used to sit. Those who had managed to get out tried to keep the doors open, but this was made difficult by the pressure on the doors from the inside and the ferocious heat. Some saved themselves escaping through the windows, the vicar among them. Many of the survivors had severe burn
Burn
A burn is an injury to flesh caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, light, radiation, or friction.Burn may also refer to:*Combustion*Burn , type of watercourses so named in Scotland and north-eastern England...

s. Only one of the dead could be identified - Vogt
Vogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...

 Dines Guldberg Høegh - by his sabre
Sabre
The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large hand guard, covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger...

. The sabre is today on display in the sacristy
Sacristy
A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.The sacristy is usually located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building...

 of Grue Church.

On 1 June the victims were buried in five coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...

s (Høegh in a separate coffin) at the site of the blaze.

The cause of the fire was never discovered. One theory speculates that a spark from a fire vessel in which the church servant brought embers from the neighbouring farm to light the altar candle
Altar candle
Altar candles are candles set on or near altars for religious ceremonies. Various denominations have regulations or traditions regarding the number and type of candles used, and when they are lit or extinguished during the services....

s with could have ignited the wall. Another theory was that someone had experimented with a burning-glass
Burning-glass
A burning glass or burning lens is a large convex lens that can concentrate the sun's rays onto a small area, heating up the area and thus resulting in ignition of the exposed surface. Burning mirrors achieve a similar effect by using reflecting surfaces to focus the light...

 outside the church.

On the ground in front of the new church a standing stone
Standing stone
Standing stones, orthostats, liths, or more commonly megaliths are solitary stones set vertically in the ground and come in many different varieties....

 was erected in 1922 in remembrance of the people that perished in the fire. The new church which is located in the center of Kirkenær was ready in 1828. In the spring of 2005 an historical marker
Historical marker
A historical marker or historic marker is an indicator such as a plaque or sign to commemorate an event or person of historic interest and to associate that point of interest with a specific locale one can visit.-Description:...

 was erected at Skulstad, immediately to the south of where the old church was located. One old and one recent map shows the course of the river then and now. The site of the old church is today in the middle of the river Glomma
Glomma
The Glomma or Glåma is the longest and largest river in Norway. The long river has a drainage basin that covers a full 13% of Norway's area, all in the southern part of Norway.-Geography:...

.

One consequence of the Grue Church fire was a law which was passed the following year prescribing that all doors of public buildings must swing outwards.

The disaster has been dealt with, including philosophically
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 in the novel
Lyksalig pinsefest (En: Blissful Pentecost: Four Dialogues with Jørgen) by Peter Wessel Zapffe
Peter Wessel Zapffe
Peter Wessel Zapffe was a Norwegian metaphysician, author and mountaineer. He was well known for his somewhat pessimistic view of human existence and his philosophy is widely considered to be pessimistic, much like the work of the earlier philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, by whom he was inspired...

.
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