6-story Jesus statue in Ohio struck by lightning, set ablaze
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • June 15, 2010
MONROE, Ohio (AP) — A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.
The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.
The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m., Monroe police dispatchers said.
The sculpture, 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday.
The fire spread from the statue to an adjacent amphitheater but was confined to the attic area, and no one was injured, police Chief Mark Neu said. The fire department would release a monetary damage estimate Tuesday, he said.
Travelers on Interstate 75 often were startled to come upon the huge statue by the roadside, but many said America needs more symbols like it. So many people stopped at the church campus that church officials had to build a walkway to accommodate them.
The 4,000-member, nondenominational church was founded by former horse trader Lawrence Bishop and his wife. Bishop said in 2004 he was trying to help people, not impress them, with the statue. He said his wife proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation and they spent about $250,000 to finance it.
In this June 26, 2005 file photo, the "King of King's"
statue of Jesus Christ stands outside of Solid Rock
Church in Monroe, Ohio. The six-story-tall statue of
Jesus with his arms raised along a highway was
struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night,
June 14, 2010 and burned to the ground, police said.
(AP Photo/The Dayton Daily News, File)
The frame remains of the six-story-tall "King of King's" statue
of Jesus Christ stand on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 outside the
Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio, after it was struck by
lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the
ground, police said. (AP Photo/The Dayton Daily News, Nick Graham)
Flames shoot up from the "King of King's" statue of Jesus
Christ standing outside of Solid Rock Church in Monroe,
Ohio in the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 15, 2010.
The six-story-tall statue of Jesus with his arms raised along
a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday
night, June 14, 2010 around 11:15 p.m. and burned to the
ground, police said (AP Photo/The Dayton Daily News, Tiffani
West-May)