Metro

Bible survives Harlem building explosion

Firefighters pulled an intact Bible from the charred rubble of the East Harlem explosion Saturday — and the pastor of the site’s destroyed church was so moved to see the good book, it nearly broke his heart.

“It is just so incredibly sad — so very hard,” the anguished Rev. Thomas Perez said at Lenox Hill Hospital, where he was being held overnight for chest pain and palpitations.

“I just keep crying,” he sobbed gently as he was led off for a CAT scan.

The large, black, leather-bound Bible had been resting on the pulpit of Perez’s storefront Spanish Christian Church when the building and the one next door at 116th Street and Park Avenue blew to pieces on Wednesday.

Eight residents — including five of Perez’s parishioners — perished.

Firefighters found the Bible and delivered it to the church’s financial secretary, Carmen Vargas-Rosa. The pastor was preparing for a prayer vigil a block from the blast site when he saw it again.

“He was sitting down, because he wasn’t feeling well,” Vargas-Rosa recalled. “He held the book, and he said, ‘Oh my. Thank God,’ ” before clutching at his heart, she said.

“It is miraculous,” she added.

The book had been buried in rubble that burned and smoldered for days — and yet it wasn’t singed. Every word remained legible.

No other artifacts from the 80-year-old church have been recovered intact, she said.

“I don’t even know how it survived,” Vargas-Rosa said. “It has the full cover, and it just had a little sand.”

“When we rebuild,” she added, “it will come back home.”

Until then, the Bible is being kept safe by Pastor Rick Del Rio of the Abounding Grace Ministries in the East Village, who first showed it to reporters.

The Bible from the Church, still intact.Warzer Jaff
“Somehow, God protected it,” he said, holding the book aloft as he spoke near the explosion site. He stood with a group of city officials and clergy from Spanish Christian Church and other churches assisting victims.

“And the firemen were able to recover it. It didn’t get destroyed as the rest of the building, and for whatever reason — we thank God for it,” Del Rio said.

“The word was preserved,” he said, and those at his side repeated the phrase in refrain.

A fund has been set up to take contributions for the church and the burial of residents who perished, along with other necessities, said Public Advocate Letitia James.

“What we need right now is money,” she said, giving the fund’s Web site as YouCaring.com/spanishchristianchurch.

The site had raised just $4,000 of its $2.5 million goal as of Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, some 200 firefighters and other emergency workers are continuing to remove debris from the site so that the gas meters and pipes in the building’s basement can be examined sometime Sunday, officials said.

All human remains are believed to have been recovered from the debris, said FDNY Commissioner Sal Cassano.