ST. AGATHA – Armand Gagnon, a retired potato inspector, walks a few miles bright and early every morning.

On Tuesday, he may very well have saved the local Catholic church from destruction.

At 5:15 a.m., Gagnon reported a fire in the 61-year-old landmark structure and averted what may have been a more serious disaster.

Fire, smoke and water damage may reach $200,000 to $300,000, according to the Rev. Claude

Gendreau, pastor of the St. Agatha Catholic Church.

“I smelled smoke, like someone was burning trash in a barrel,” Gagnon said Tuesday afternoon. “Seeing nothing around, I went into the church where I saw smoke and a large glow.

“I went next door, to Albert Chasse’s house – he was already awake – and called the Fire Department,” he continued. “I then went to the rectory, but there was no one there, because Father [Gendreau] was gone down south.”

“It is quite a mess, but we know that God works in mysterious ways,” Gendreau said Tuesday afternoon. “There is a lot of damage to the balcony area, and smoke and water damage everywhere.

“There is soot all over, and water inside the building made quite a mess,” he said. “Besides fire damage, the entire interior has to be cleaned, from the basement to the ceilings.

“They [firefighters] also had to break open a stained-glass window, and that was a decision to save the window or save the church,” he said. “They made the right decision.”

The priest said, “The outpouring of support is immense. People in the parish have been coming over all day.”

Gendreau was in Portland on church business when the fire occurred, but was back in St. Agatha by early afternoon.

Holy Week services for the parish will be held at the St. Luce Catholic Church in Frenchville, where Gendreau also is the pastor. Gendreau serves three parishes, including St. Joseph Parish in Sinclair.The St. Agatha parish has 408 families on its rolls.The priest hopes that services can be held in the basement of the St. Agatha church in two weeks.

St. Agatha Fire Chief Mark Chamberland said 42 firefighters from St. Agatha and Frenchville battled the fire and had it down by 7:30 a.m. Firefighters were mopping up at the scene until after 9 a.m.

“It was an electrical fire in the balcony at the rear of the church,” he said. “We are still not sure if the fire started in an outlet or in a light connected to the outlet.

“The fire marshal is at the scene,” Chamberland said just after noon Tuesday.

The balcony and a wall were damaged by the fire. Much of the balcony railing was consumed by the fire, but damage to the wall that ignited was minimal, Chamberland said.

Smoke damage also was extensive to the entire interior of the church, and there was some water damage on the main floor and in the finished basement.

The firefighters were assisted at the scene by three trucks plus a rescue truck that was not needed. There were no injuries.

Gagnon, 70, leaves home every morning at 4:40 a.m. for his daily walk. Fortunately, the door to the church was not locked and he was able to determine early what was going on.

He also remembered the fire that took the original church.

“I was around, I was 10 at the time, when the old church burned in 1940,” he said. “I remember that as well, and that was quite something.”

A huge fire, caused by an oil stove explosion in a home at the rear of the church, destroyed the original structure built in 1893.

The St. Agatha church, on Route 162 in the center of the community, is a landmark in the town of 800 people. The large, brick building, with a huge bell spire, oversees Long Lake and is a part of the skyline for miles around. The church was built in 1941 at a cost of $150,000.

The present church, built for a capacity of 1,050 people, was designed by Ed Graham of Boston. The first High Mass there was celebrated on Aug. 10, 1941, by Bishop Joseph E. McCarthy.

The present church was renovated, at a cost of over $100,000, in 1983-84 and was rededicated by Bishop Edward C. O’Leary on Oct. 21, 1984.