Flames Destroy Church

Last updated on Thursday, July 9, 2009

UPDATED - 11:02 AM
(BEDFORD) - Fire tore through the Central Church of Christ in Bedford early this morning.

See WBIW Story:
Click Here
See WISH-TV Story
Click Here
See WTHR Story:
Click Here
See Fox59 Story:
Click Here

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time; it is undetermined when fire officials will be able to discover the cause.

Scott Gillespie the Bedford Fire Chief told WBIW that "A Neighbor reported the smoke near the intersection of 12th and 0 (Streets) at around 12:15 AM, the fire was concealed in the interior walls and some isolated areas above the ceiling.
About 90 minutes into the fire the interior crews reported that conditions inside were deteriorating pretty rapidly, at the point the fire extending through the roof.
The fire was probably extinguished about %90 in about an hour."

Even though the familiar church building is gone, the family it gave a house for has not lost all hope.

Some of the members of the church sitting on the front porch of the church's educational center across the street looking through the lobby doors watching water spilling down the stairs and into the basement as fire crews extinguish the smoldering embers.

One of the elders of the church, Clovis Parsley, said that "It's a really great loss to us, but it's not something that's going to stop us or interfere with our work, we are going to continue with all of our ministries and activities that we have been scheduling and life will go on as usual."

The members are going to meet in the educational building across the street, Parsley said that they have done it before and it will more than accommodate their needs.

No one was injured in the fire.

Fire crews remain at the scene, the fire has been put out but they are currently extinguishing hot embers.

The Central Church of Christ is located at 1401 12th Street; ironically, on the church's website, they are asking for donations to help another church that caught on fire June 27th in Idaho; that church fire was caused from vandalism.

church fire 3(2).jpg

BFD-CentralChOfChristFire-69[1].jpg

BFD-CentralChOfChristFire-59[1].jpg

BFD-CentralChOfChristFire-52[1].jpg

Previous Article
(BEDFORD) - Residents surrounding the Central Church of Christ building at 1401 12th Street were awakened early this morning with smoke filling their neighborhood streets.

The Central Church of Christ building was fully engulfed as of this morning.

At 3:50 AM this morning most of the roof had been destroyed except for the steel framework of the roof which was bowing in the middle due to the extreme heat.

At 4:10 AM, Perry Cox a nearby resident who was out watching the fire told WBIW that the building was probably a total loss about two hours ago.

It is still too early at this time to determine the cause of the fire or if anyone was injured in the incident.

Some of the neighborhood residents told WBIW News that the fire had reportedly started at around midnight; the residents sitting on their sidewalks and front porches watching the all to familiar building burn.

The smoke could be seen and smelled several neighborhoods away.

WBIW News and WBIW.com will provide additional information as it becomes available.

Photos Courtesy Of Deb Owen