A light rain was falling when Anthony Peterson took a break from work Wednesday afternoon and drove his 9-year-old daughter to Antioch Baptist Missionary Church.

Demolition of the Englewood structure, severely damaged by a blaze on Good Friday, was beginning after the city deemed the building too unsound to save.

The father and daughter joined a few other bystanders in a nearby parking lot as a firefighter helped them peer into a gaping gash in the building so that they could see a large mural depicting Jesus.

“I didn’t get teary-eyed but it was a feeling of like wow … this is really happening,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of been a weeklong bad dream.”

The “historic community pillar,” was being torn down stone by stone and brick by brick.

The church at 6248 S. Stewart Ave., “is not structurally sound and poses a potential danger to surrounding buildings and public safety,” said Amanda Bolton, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Buildings, ending any hope exterior walls or the mural could be salvaged.

Peterson, 39, is a lifelong member of the church, which burned Friday afternoon in a fire that began with workers on the roof using a propane torch. Much of that upper level eventually collapsed.

Most of the church was still standing as of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, and Peterson said his daughter described it this way:

“A monster took a big bite out of the top of the church,” she said.

A short time later, it was still drizzling as several construction workers stood watch while others dismantled the church gables because they were at risk of collapsing. The entire process could take as long as two weeks, according to a city representative at the scene.

Earlier in the day, the Chicago Fire Department responded to a rekindling in the doorway on the West Englewood Avenue side of the building, said spokesman Larry Langford.

The rekindling, which took about 20 minutes to put out, happened while workers were knocking down the top of the wall by hand, and Langford said it must have started as debris was being thrown down on some carpet and wood causing them to catch fire.

Workers were still in the process of tearing down the top parts of the walls by hand by end of Wednesday and will continue that work Thursday to stabilize the walls, Langford said.

The gables, or triangular tops of the walls, are more at risk of collapsing and therefore need to be dismantled by hand before using any larger scale demolition equipment.

Langford said there is a high chance of even more rekindling after the Fire department has already responded to one or more each day since the fire, which he said is “to be expected with a fire this size.”

As the work continued, many including Peterson turned to their memories. “I was almost born there,’’ Peterson said, laughing.

“I came a few weeks early, so they had choir rehearsal on Thursdays,” Peterson said, recalling his mother was in the choir. “She went in and I guess I started coming.”

He was born later that day after his mom eventually made it to a nearby hospital in time, he said.

Despite the mural being intact because of its place on a first-floor wall, city officials said it also wouldn’t survive.

“Unfortunately, it is not technically feasible to cut, lift, and remove the wall intact,” Bolton said in the statement. “Attempting to remove an interior wall intact would pose a significant safety risk to workers and could cause other segments of the structurally comprised building to collapse.”

A third-generation church member, Peterson grew up about a mile from the church at 55th Street and Princeton Avenue and until he was 9 went to the church several times a week by jumping on a Red Line train or CTA bus. Even on Saturdays there was basketball practice there.

“Essentially all my life I’ve been participating in almost any and everything at the church,” he said.

The church’s pastor could not immediately be reached for comment. City officials said they would work closely with church leadership as the congregation dealt with its loss.

Darren Garrett, a church trustee, told WMAQ-Ch. 5 he had been hoping parts of the walls might be saved, and an alternate site for services will now be chosen..

“It really hurts to see the building leave, but the church is still here in our hearts,” he said.

Peterson said he just wanted to see his church before it was completely gone.

“We’re not going to have too many moments that we’ll have to see the remaining church,” he said. “I didn’t want to say I wish I could have seen it.”

Chicago Tribune’s Stephanie Casanova contributed.