One day in 1964, the Sycamore Fire Department found themselves in a very sticky situation. As flames raced up into the second and third floors of the Alida Young Temple, firefighters needed a way to get water up and into the building’s windows.

“The police department shot out the windows so we could shoot water onto the fire,” said retired firefighter Robert Fleetwood.

Fleetwood was just one speaker at the Sycamore Fires Brown Bag Lecture, about two historical fires that occurred in Sycamore, led by Sycamore firefighter Jim Lyon Thursday. The lecture came just a few days before Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 5-11.

Held at the Sycamore Center, the lecture featured an 8 mm film that Sycamore native Ralph Joiner recorded on Jan. 24, 1964 of a fire at Alida Young Temple, home of the Masonic and Odd Fellows Organizations and Hagen’s Ace Hardware Store. Sycamore Fire Chief Bill Riddle also presented a slide show of pictures from a fire in 2004 at St. John’s Lutheran Church.

The lecture began with Lyon introducing the 8 mm film and showing it on an old projector. The short film provided images of the three-story stone building engulfed in clouds of black smoke and large flames.

After the film, Fleetwood, who was at the building at the time of the fire, gave his recollection of the event. Fleetwood remembers the situation the fire department was in as the fire spread from the basement up to the roof of the building, where some of the firefighters were.

“All of a sudden, the roof started to get spongy,” Fleetwood said. The roof soon collapsed, leaving nothing but a giant hole. No firefighters were hurt that day.

After Fleetwood shared his memories of the 1964 fire, Riddle showed pictures from the 2004 fire at St. John’s Lutheran Church.

“The fires that happen destroy the fabric of the community,” Riddle said. “For days people were standing in the street looking at the rubble and they were in shock.”

Riddle said the day before the blaze destroyed the church, there was a small fire behind the pipe organ, but the fire department put it out. Unfortunately, a small ember rekindled, and the fire came back the next day.

“The staff smelled smoke, but they thought it was from the previous day,” Riddle said.

Once the fire became obvious, the fire department did its best to save the church.

“The structure blew up,” said Riddle. “The entire thing went at once.”

Riddle said although this was a horrible event, there were some miracles that day. All the firefighters injured in the blaze made a full recovery and there was little wind that day which prevented the fire from spreading to other structures.