WHAT devastating scenes we witnessed on Friday night when Bethel Community Church went up in flames.

But what a fantastic response from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service which directed massive resource into the city centre so very quickly.

At its height there were 83 fire officers tackling the blaze which had started in a nearby empty former nightclub before spreading to the church.

Some officers worked through the night and were still there on Saturday damping down to make sure every last bit of the fire had been extinguished.

But what the incident also highlighted was the great response of people in Newport. From those who offered to take in people who had to be evacuated from their homes in the interests of safety, to local organisations like Le Public Space who offered water and coffee to help keep fire officers going, to an estate agents appealing to other businesses to do something to help the parishioners of this popular church.

And finally to the church members themselves who turned out on Sunday to hold their service in the car park of their devastated building.

The climb back will start now and we have every confidence that with the support of as many of us as possible Bethel Community Church will once again be working to help vulnerable people in Newport, as it always has done.