The £100,000 blaze which damaged historic Fife church

The fire on Kirk Wynd was noticed in the early hours of the morning of July 21, 1986.

Estimates of the damage were put at around £100,000, and the minister, the Rev John G Sim, did not mince his words, calling the actions of those responsible “symptomatic of a sick society”.

Four units of Fife Fire and Rescue Service and a hydraulic platform raced to Kirk Wynd after the alarm was raised by a passing taxi driver shortly after 5.30 am.

Archibald Houston (50) from Methil, spotted smoke coming from the pre-reformation church tower and alerted the police and fire services.

Twenty-five firemen from Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes and Methil took almost two hours to bring the blaze under control, using breathing apparatus to fight the fire in the smoke-filled building.

A Fire Services spokesman told the Fife Free Press: “There were several seats of fire and the balcony was burning fiercely.

“The fire had spread to the ceiling through the ventilation ducts, and we had to make our way up the spiral staircase in the bell tower to the roof space which was heavily smoke-logged.”

The heat in the building was so intense that it melted pipes of the church organ, which dated back to the 1890s.

It was estimated by the Fire Service that in another half-hour, the leading of the stained glass windows, for which the Old Kirk was noted, would have melted and the roof caught fire.

Mr Sim, who had been minister of the charge for 26 years, praised the courage of firemen in crossing over from the tower to the smoke-filled roof-space to contain the spread of the fire.

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“The smoke was so dense,” he said,” that lights could not penetrate it, and the men took their lives in their hands in moving over the narrow catwalks.”

One fireman was later treated at Victoria Hospital for grazing and bruising a leg.

Two units of the Fire Service remained at the scene for nearly 12 hours, damping down and cutting away affected timbers, including a large section of the balcony.

A spokesman for Fife Police said entry to the Old Kirk had been gained via a transom window, and the vestry had also been ransacked.

“It would appear that theft was the original aim, but there was nothing of value in the church,” said Mr Sim.

“Although this is a hard blow we have been greatly cheered by the sympathetic response of many friends, old and new.”

“It is in this way that good comes out of evil. Although I hope those responsible for this mindless vandalism will be caught and dealt with as the law sees fit, I have no personal animosity towards them.

“It is obvious their actions are symptomatic of a society sick in itself and they are not alone culpable.

“Nothing can destroy the values of the Church, and we in the Old Kirk, by our response to this attack, intend to demonstrate that.”

The Old Kirk was built abutting the bell tower in 1808, although a church on the site was consecrated by Bishop de Bernham of St Andrews in 1244.

The church had been completely renovated in 1968 at a cost of £25,000.