WILLISTON, Vt. (AP) – A day after lightning struck an historic church, the charred wooden bell tower lay scattered on the ground in pieces.

With a crane, crews removed the blackened lumber and cracked 500-pound bell from the top of the church on Sunday.

Saturday’s fire was contained in the cupola and did not damage the church built in 1832. But water used to douse the flames seeped into the walls, basement and balcony. The extent of the damage was unknown Sunday.

“It’s sad but they’re going to rebuild,” said Betsy McCaffrey, as she sat in her car across the street snapping photographs. Her daughter was married in the beloved church five years ago.

Other spectators stopped, even some pulling up lawn chairs, to watch the progress.

The brick building with its Gothic, arched windows is an icon of sorts. Now owned by the town, it’s used for meetings, memorials, Christmas Eve and Fourth of July services and weddings, including one that took place an hour before the church was hit.

“It’s irreplaceable,” Ginger Isham, the former president of the Williston Historical Society, said the landmark.

The church has never been struck by lightning before but the building sat unoccupied for years. As the congregational church’s membership dwindled, it closed and joined the nearby Methodist church in 1899.

Later the church underwent a major restoration and in 1965 was listed on the National Register of historic sites.

When Jack Price, a trustee of the church for 17 years, heard about the fire Saturday, he raced over to see what was left. He became emotional when he couldn’t see the bell tower as smoke poured from the church.

“I thought it was totally engulfed,” he said. “I was prepared to see a big pile of bricks.”

He even thought about what would sit on the site as a memorial if the church had burned.

As a public building the Old Brick Church has great “philosophical significance,” he said. “In its restored state it’s sort of imparted a sense of calm to the historic building because it’s endured,” he said. “It’s a quiet, peaceful, reverent kind of place.”

To his relief not only was the church standing but the damage was contained to the bell tower, and perhaps the bell.

The bell tower needed paint and was looking dilapidated anyway, he said. “We’ll restore it to its original state and form,” he said.