Baptism by fire hose?
Accompanied by brass bands and thundering preachers, several hundred people squeezed onto a narrow street in the District’s Shaw neighborhood yesterday to be baptized in the drenching shower of a fire hose. The service, in its 81st year, is an annual tradition for the church, which has its national headquarters in the District. Yesterday’s mass baptism took place in front of the House of Prayer’s flagship church, the gold-domed “God’s White House” at Sixth and M streets NW.