Panhandle pastor suffers smoke inhalation in parsonage fire

WESTVILLE (FBW)-The parsonage of New Hope Baptist Church in Westville was heavily damaged by fire March 23. Sixty-eight-year-old pastor Lindsey Martin was hospitalized four days for smoke inhalation; his wife, Carol, escaped without injury.

Although the concrete block structure was still standing, the interior of the house and its contents were lost to the kitchen fire. The couple was awakened by smoke detectors.

Carol Martin ran 300 yards to the New Hope Volunteer Fire Department for help.

Meanwhile, Lindsey Martin, not knowing his wife had already escaped, re-entered the burning home to find his wife. That’s when he suffered smoke inhalation.

“If Lindsay had not checked those batteries a few weeks ago, we’d be dead now,” Carol Martin told Florida Baptist Witness as the couple was driving to Marianna to purchase a new suit for Sunday services.

“Even then, the new batteries sat on the counter several days before we replaced them.”

Not long after firefighters arrived, fellow pastor Eddie Eaton, former pastor of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Bonifay and member of the local Sheriff’s Office, arrived and transported Martin to Wiregrass Hospital in Geneva, Ala., eight miles from Westville.

“I tell you, Lindsey has had cancer, a heart attack and a broken leg, and he says the worst thing he has ever felt was not being able to breathe after the fire,” Carol Martin said.

Martin was released from the hospital just in time for church on Easter. Youth director Jason Kirk preached for his pastor who was still hoarse. Church members offered the couple encouragement along with a myriad of housewares, furniture and groceries. Holmes County Association has loaned them a computer.

“Not to say that we would want this to happen again,” Lindsey Martin said. “But God has blessed us so much in this.”

The house and contents that the church owned were covered by insurance, but the Martins’ personal belongings were not. They encourage other pastors living in parsonages to learn from their mistake.

“We should have had renter’s insurance, but never thought about it until it was too late,” Carol Martin said.

The Martins only recently purchased a nearby mobile home that they had offered to their youth pastor.

Now the Martins and Jason Kirk share the double-wide home located one-half mile from the church.