Fire Chief discusses details of possible Macon church arson
NewsCentral Producer
Story Created:
Jan 30, 2013 at 4:23 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Jan 30, 2013 at 7:43 PM EDT
Arson investigators say a fire the burned a church early Monday morning had multiple points of origin and was accelerated with a petroleum based fuel.
Macon-Bibb Fire Chief Marvin Riggins says first responders found the building was open when they responded to the fire at Reaching Souls Cathedral of Praise around 12:30 a.m. Monday. Riggins says there was no sign of forced entry.
In a media brief Wednesday, Riggins said investigators are following up on several leads but they have no suspects at this time.
The blaze destroyed the sanctuary and quickly spread to a fellowship hall, a church bus parked nearby was also damaged.
"It's still an ongoing investigation at this point in time, but at this point in time we do know, we feel very comfortable, that it was a fire of a suspicious nature, that did have some acceleration into the building that we find unusual," Riggins said.
Riggins says samples have been sent to a lab to determine exactly what kind of fuel was used to accelerate the fire. Petroleum based fuels could be some kind of fossil fuel, like gasoline, or kerosene.
The lab results are not expected to come back for several weeks.
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