Four days after the Catholic church was destroyed by the wildfire that swept through the Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades, Captain Bryan Nassour of the Los Angeles Fire Department “picked his way over a six-foot layer of rubble in the ashen bones of the sanctuary and recovered the tabernacle”, reports Angelus News.  

“I did it because the whole community has been decimated – it looks like a nuclear bomb has gone off and nothing is standing,” says Nassour, a member of St. Francis de Sales Church in nearby Sherman Oaks, and whose brother is a member of the Corpus Christi parish.

The firefighter added: “My brother lost his home. I have close friends who lost everything but the shirts on their backs, and they belong to that church too. So, if I could save just one thing, let it be this, so they have something to believe in.”

After the fire had ravaged the church building, a subsequent message on the parish website from Mgr. Liam Kidney, the church’s pastor – accompanied by a picture of the ruined church – read:

“My dear parishioners, here is the terribly sad news of our church and of our community this morning. The priests are safe with family and friends. Let us pray for each other during this transition.

The message continued: “I have no words. Our beautiful church in Pacific Palisades, as of this morning. Praying for my hometown, the LAFD [Los Angeles Fire Department] and everyone effected by these horrific fires.”

The message concluded with the parish priest’s signature and the Latin words “Siempre Adelante! [Always ahead!]”

The parish also oversees Corpus Christi School, which educates children aged 5-14. A video on the school’s website shows the church as it burns while a news reporter attempts to confirm whether the school has suffered damage.

Wildfires this January have wreaked havoc across Los Angeles, fueled by hurricane-level Santa Ana winds, extremely low humidity and dry conditions.

The scale of destruction caused by the fires has been unprecedented and led President Joe Biden to cancel a trip to Italy that would have been his last foreign trip as president, and which was scheduled to include an audience with Pope Francis.

On the other hand. a family from Altadena, California, has gone viral after a statue of the Virgin Mary was discovered unscathed in the rubble of their home, which was destroyed in wildfires.

Peter and Jackie Halpin, along with their family, fled their house as the Eaton Fire swept through the area, reducing their property of 37 years to ashes. Remarkably, two statues—a Virgin Mary and a Saint Joseph—were found intact among the destruction.

“Everything got fried, but the statues were in perfect condition,” Peter Halpin told Fox News.

The family returned to the site after one member went back to assess the damage, finding the statues untouched. They responded in prayer and sang a hymn in front of the statues, sharing the moment in a video that has since gone viral online.

“We gave our pain to Christ and his mother,” Andrew Halpin told KTLA 5. Andrew’s sister, Marie Clare Metcalfe, explained that “faith has always been the foundation of our family, and it will continue to be as we navigate forward.”

The wildfires in Southern California have caused widespread devastation, with the combined death toll from the Palisades and Eaton fires reaching 24 as of Monday January 13.