Today was a sad, sad day in the history of the state. The Provo Tabernacle was destroyed by an early morning fire. Some time ago, I was called by the
LDS Provo Facilities Maintenance Group and asked to help them with their fire alarm system. The system was very old and was not entirely functional. I helped them find a smoke detector to make it functional again, and made recommendations that the system be repaired. There was no immediate plan to replace the system, but they asked me to put together a budget to replace the fire alarm system for their future planning. Because there was no urgency at the time, I let the project slip and never put together pricing for them.
While surveying the building for a future fire alarm, I was amazed by the craftsmanship of the work inside. It was a truly beautiful building, with exceptional stained glass windows lighting up the richly carved pioneer woodwork. There was a famous Minerva
Teichert painting inside and many other priceless works of art. I remembered that my ancestor John Watkins carved the intricate woodwork on the original Tabernacle pulpit. There must be many pioneers in heaven who are just sickened by what happened today. I am sickened by the thought that if I had followed through with the plan to put together a design
for the fire alarm, someone may have been willing to spend the money to put it in. Ultimately though, fire alarm systems don't put out fires, they mostly save lives. Thankfully, it looks like no lives were lost due to the early morning nature of the fire.
