The pastor of an Apia church, which was partially damaged by fire last month, is relieved their insurance coverage is now paying the rebuilding and associated costs. 

When the Samoa Observer visited the Apia Harvest Centre Church at Togafu'afu'a on Friday morning, there were carpenters onsite working on rebuilding parts of the church that were damaged by a large inferno last month, which originated from the Sunrise restaurant compound next door. 

The church's Senior Pastor Amosa Pouoa told this newspaper in an interview that he feared the worst when the fire started in the neighbouring compound on the night of 20 September 2023 and threatened to spread to the church.

"We were so fortunate that Fire and Emergency Services (F.E.S.A.) were able to contain the fire before it actually burnt the wall [of the church] on top," he said. "You can actually see the fire marks, but F.E.S.A. was just in time to save the church from being burnt.

"So the main damage from the other side is that all the windows are gone, the main damage to the kitchen alone was from falling [debris] from the ceiling and also the water when they [F.E.S.A.] came in to try to save the church....so where out kitchen was, it is quite damaged.

"Ashes from the top also dropped on the cabinet and caused a lot of damage. I think one of the damages that we didn't anticipate is the floor [of the church]. The water from the fire trucks, there was so much water that it actually penetrated the floor, some of the tiles were actually loose."

Pastor Amosa said the church's fellowship hall was totally damaged, though the structure remained intact despite the strength of the blaze, and he said another assessment would need to be done after the roof of the fellowship hall is taken off. Other items that were damaged by the fire included the church's windows, multiple air conditioning units as well and the carpets. 

Doing an assessment of the damage, in conjunction with local firm Apia Insurance Company (AIC), he said it was the church's fellowship hall that bore the brunt of the inferno's impact. The church then submitted a claim of SAT$230,000 to the insurance firm with Pastor Amosa saying they approved $160,000 to fund the rebuilding and replacement of items damaged and lost to the blaze.

"We are so fortunate that AIC was able to grant us $160,000 so now we are working with $160,000 so we will ask the bank to make up the number so we can have $230,000 to do the whole renovation well to make sure the church is safe."

The short turnaround by the AIC in processing the church's claim in just over two weeks also impressed Pastor Amosa, who said he was thankful that the rebuilding work at the church had started, and they didn't have to wait for three months for the claim to be processed.

"AIC has been really helpful to us, I think the most important thing was that after two weeks of the fire, we had received assistance from them and that is one of the reasons why we were able to start the renovation straight away.

"We weren't going to wait for the insurance, we were going to proceed with the bank and ask the bank [for a loan], we kind of held back for a while but I think we were quite amazed at how quickly AIC responded to us."

AIC Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Sarah Pagia, confirmed when contacted by this newspaper that they were able to process the claim for the church in the aftermath of the fire. She said the church needed financial assistance to begin rebuilding following the fire and they recognised that.

"We tried to make everything as simple as possible in order to have the claim settled as soon as we could so it only took us two weeks to assess it [the claim] and then we paid it, we settled it on the 6th of October," said Ms. Pagia. "Apia Insurance is a locally owned insurance company and we are here for the community so in times of need, we know what our clients need and how soon they need it.

 "Same with the church, there were other requirements that we needed, like for example, a fire report, those sort of reports. But it takes time for these authorities to provide these reports. Even until now, we haven't received the report yet, but instead of us waiting for those reports to be provided, we had to go ahead because we know the church really needed it."