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Fire Defenses Tested On Old City's Historic Christ Church After Notre Dame Cathedral Fire

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- In the wake of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, historic Christ Church in Old City tested its defenses against fire.

It wasn't pouring rain at Christ Church Wednesday. Instead, the deluge exterior fire prevention system was being tested on the steeple of the 18th century church where some of our forefathers, like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, were congregants.

With scaffolding soon to go up for summer restoration work, what happened in Paris to Notre Dame Cathedral is very much on the mind of church leaders.

Reverend Timothy Safford is the rector of the church.

"The pumps are done every year. The nozzles didn't need to be tested until the summer, but with the tragedy in Paris, it seemed prudent to move that up to make sure our system was in excellent condition," Safford said.

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Sprinkler heads -- some dating back 25 years -- are expected to be switched out. The steeple, standing nearly 200 feet in the air, caught on fire once before in 1908 because of a lightening strike.

"And miraculously, the thunderstorm that accompanied the lightening blast extinguished the fire before too much damage could be made," Safford said.

Safford says that was the inspiration to create a deluge sprinkler system in the steeple today.

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