23:34:15Slichot Services in 1964 were interrupted by a neighbor running into the shul and informing us that the back of the building was on fire. Chaim Weisman, the cantor, rushed to the back door next to the bimah and opened it. The flames lapped the inside wall and the backdraft almost carried Chaim into the flames. The Fire Department extinguished the flames, and Max Talkowsky, was one of the first responders into the building and the shul was saved with only minor damage. The firefighters explained that if it wasn’t for the concrete extending so high up on the building that the flames would have entered the basement and we would have been trapped. The culprit, a local drunk name Gordie Newt on, told police that the organ music was to loud and he could not sleep.
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