Video: 'Nightmare' NYC Fire Destroys Historic Cathedral on Orthodox Easter Sunday

UPDATE, Monday afternoon: An employee in a nearby office tower just posted this depressing "after" pic of the cathedral, now a mere skeleton of its former self, to Reddit. R.I.P.

MANHATTAN, NY — The 160-year-old Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava on West 25th Street, near Madison Square Park, was completely gutted Sunday by a four-alarm fire that injured six people and filled the streets of the Flatiron District with thick smoke and ash.

More than 700 parishioners had reportedly gathered at the church earlier that morning for Easter Sunday services (according to the Orthodox calendar) and a holiday luncheon.

Luckily, though, by the time the fire broke out around 7 p.m., nobody was in the church, according to NBC New York.

"A building caretaker attempted to rush inside when he noticed the fire, but was turned back by the flames," NBC reported.

Six people suffered minor injuries in the fire, officials with the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) told NBC — four of them firefighters.

Church staff and congregants reportedly broke down in tears as they watched their house of worship burn.

One of St. Sava's priests, Father Djokan Majstorovic, told the Associated Press he felt like he was "in a nightmare."

And churchgoer Alex Velic, 31, said in an interview with the New York Post: “For this to happen on such a holy day, I don’t know what to say. To see it burning like that is such a shock. It’s just so sad. I can’t think of the words to express how I’m feeling.”

The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission reportedly declared the cathedral a historic landmark in the 1960s — noting that its “special character, historic significance, and aesthetic interest and value of the development, heritage, and cultural characteristics of New York make it irreplaceable.”

Following Sunday's fire, the cathedral is now almost entirely destroyed, according to multiple reports. Its roof is in danger of complete collapse.

For a better idea of what's been lost, here's a description of the cathedral from the NYC chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Gracing Manhattan's historic Chelsea District, the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava is a splendid example of Gothic Revival architecture. The former Trinity Chapel and the then uptown branch of Trinity Church on Wall Street was designed in 1851 by the celebrated architect Richard M. Upjohn. It served local Episcopalians for the next 92 years, including the renowned author Edith Wharton, who not only was married in the Chapel, but who also immortalized the milieu and the church in The Age of Innocence, her classic novel of Victorian New York Life.

For nearly a century and a half, this magnificent church has housed many remarkable artworks designed by Upjohn. These include stained glass windows (some in perilously delicate condition), an exquisite stained glass rosette window, intricately carved interior fretwork, and the beautifully designed inlaid tile floor. Other artworks in the church include fourteen large-scale religious painting by Rachel Richardson which adorn the niches along the main walls of the nave. Unusual examples of polychrome decorative painting surround the altar area, and an impressive, hand-carved wooden pulpit with superb religious carvings complete the treasure trove of divine artistry.

And below, some more surreal video footage from scene of the fire.