FIRE DESTROYS SALESIAN CHAPEL: TASMANIA
HOBART (Tas): 25th May -- In the early hours of Sunday morning, a fire has destroyed the chapel dedicated to St. Dominic Savio at Dominic College, Glenorchy, Tasmania. The Tasmanian Fore Service which attended the blaze estimated damage to be in the order of $600,000. The real costs may be much higher and for the Salesians and many local people, it is not a question of financial loss, but the loss of something which lay at the heart of the extensive Salesian presnece on behalf of the young people of Tasmania.
The school holidays had begun on the Friday - and the fire was burning for as long as two hours before one of the Salesians was woken by the sound of falling debris. Thick fog and the already advanced state of the fire meant that the fire service could do little to save the building. Investigators are yet to determine its cause.
The chapel was blessed and opened by the Late Archbishop Guildford Young in 1957 - it marked the development of Savio College, as it was then known, from the earlier Boys Town of post-war years. A feature of the chapel were the hand-painted windows depicting the Stations of the Cross. In more recent years the chapel had been completely refurbished. For an important part of its history, the College had combined with the local Dominican Sisters' Holy Name Girls School and was renamed Dominic College. The chapel became the centre of that entity's liturgical and prayer life.
Dominic College has now returned to its original Salesian inspiration and management and plans are already in place to bring the Primary school onto the College grounds (presently located a kilometre away), making it one of the largest K-12 institutions in the State. The chapel will certainly be rebuilt to focus the eucharistic heart of this enterprise.
