Firefighters were summoned to 1001 E 27th Street on October 8, 2013, where they found a large two-story church with fire blowing out of the attic. Firefighters assumed an immediate aggressive attack with hose-lines inside the dark, hot interior and up to the second floor. Within fifteen minutes portions of the attic and second floor suddenly fell. A firefighter on the second story rode the floor down as it dropped to the first story. He was trapped in heavy burning debris and had to utilize his emergency air canister to breathe.
More than 150 firefighters fully extinguished the flames in three hours and 45 minutes. Over the next several hours, firefighters carefully salvaged items from the sanctuary and supported the investigation which is ultimately being handled by the multiagency House of Worship Arson Task Force
The church, built in the mid-1890s, is along a street that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. “It was part of a lot history, especially during the early years of the century, when they had the Prohibition movements. The Women’s (Christian) Temperance Union had meetings here every day,” Pastor Lawrence Magee said.
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