Bert Martin, a member of the Vancouver United Church of Christ, recalled getting a phone call while deep in sleep an early morning in May 2016. His church was on fire, he learned. At the scene, he remembered, firefighters were concerned the cross atop the west steeple of the church’s sloping, boat-like roof would fall on homes below. “They wanted to take it down before it fell down,” he told to the congregation at a rededication ceremony for the church Sunday afternoon.