Fire Destroys Renovated Sanctuary

About 50 parishioners held hands and prayed in the soot-covered parking lot of Holy Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon, just hours after their sanctuary had been destroyed by an electrical fire.

Members of the tight-knit congregation, who had just spent $28,000 refurbishing the church’s interior with a paint job and new carpets and pews, were shaken at the sight of their badly damaged church at 1016 E. Rosecrans Ave., near Compton.

“I feel like my house burned down,” Marie Smith said, wiping tears from her eyes.

The blaze, which officials said caused $1.3 million in structural damage and $500,000 in other losses, reduced the entire inner sanctuary, including the new pews, to ashes.

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies saw the flames about 3 a.m., about the same time that a neighbor reported hearing the church’s alarm, said Los Angeles County Fire Investigator Dick Wood.

He said that the blaze was sparked by wiring in a newly built room filled with electronic equipment.

The head of the 1,000-member congregation, Pastor George Thomas, assured the parishioners they would rebuild.

“The church didn’t burn down. The house did,” Thomas said. “Just like it once sat, so it will sit again.”