Arson suspected in some cases
Friday, February 3, 2006; Posted: 11:08 a.m. EST (16:08 GMT)
CENTREVILLLE, Alabama (AP) -- A series of fires damaged six rural Alabama churches overnight, and investigators Friday were trying to determine whether they were arson.
Most of the churches were Baptist, located near major highways, and all but one were in Bibb County, about 25 miles south of Birmingham.
The other church, in Chilton County, had been undergoing construction, which could have been a source of the fire, said Ragan Ingram, a spokesman for the state insurance agency that oversees fire investigations. That church, New Harmony Baptist in Fairview, was destroyed.
No arrests had been made Friday morning.
In 1996, race was a factor in a series of arsons that damaged rural black churches in Alabama and elsewhere. But Ingram said the fires late Thursday and early Friday destroyed both the churches of predominantly black congregations and predominantly white congregations.
The Ashby Baptist Church in Brierfield and Rehobeth Baptist Church in Randolph both burned to the ground.
Jim Parker, a member of the Ashby Baptist Church, told WBRC television in Birmingham that he understood the fire began near the pulpit and that the fires at other churches had a similar pattern.
The pastor of Old Union Baptist, the Rev. David Hand, said a fire at his church, also in Brierfield, was discovered about 4:30 a.m. (5:30 ET) and extinguished before it could cause serious damage.
Ingram said the two other churches are in Antioch and near Centreville. It wasn't immediately clear how seriously they were damaged.
