Firefighters battled a massive fire at the Pentecostal Determine Church of God on Cleveland's east side. While no one was injured, many in the neighborhood are sad to see the building go.
You can watch video of crews battling the fire in the player below:
Cleveland Fire believes the fire broke out around 7 a.m. in a condemned vacant church in the 9100 block of Miles Park. When fire officials arrived, flames could be seen coming out of the top of the church.
"There were already some structural damages to this building previously, and we were aware of that, so we’ve been fighting this fire defensively," said Mike Norman, Public information officer for the Cleveland Division of Fire.
A house on the east side of the church suffered a little bit of damage from the fire. After the flames were put out all that was left of the old church was a collapsed roof, debris everywhere and walls with gaping holes.
The church was built in 1872 with a fire happening in 1925. Over the decades it's held many congregations before sitting vacant, one of which was John Wrights. John tells News 5 in that same building he went to a Methodist church over 20 years ago, now he's in disbelief that his old church is gone.
"My sister got married there, we had seen a lot of good Easter services there," John continued. "It was beautiful inside it had a second level and the altar area, everything was beautiful, the paintings and stained glass window."
Stephanie Hendking was also surprised to see the building burn down.
"The whole structure of the building is still there, but the inside is still gone, but its still devastating because like a church to me is a sacred place, like that's things you don't touch, that’s like a bad omen," said Hendking.
She works at Our Youth Our Future, which is a youth center and after-school program right across the street from the burned-down building. Hendking was hoping they would revitalize the church for future partnerships to help improve the neighborhood.
“We could do some things around the community, revitalize the community with the church and probably has services,” said Hendking.
But now, she's not sure what they'll do with it.
“I just hope they figure out something to do with the building. If not like I said tear it down because it's going to be trouble,” said Hendking.
The city said there are demolition contractors working with the fire department to decide the next steps, releasing the following statement:
"The City’s Department of Building & Housing has worked quickly to act on this developing situation. Our demolition contractor is currently on-site working with our Division of Fire to assess the damage and determine next steps, which may include demolition. This is a fluid situation that is still evolving and more information will become available as the investigation continues."
Though it's clear that the building should be torn down, John is still sad to see his old church go.
“It would take a lot of work to fix that backup, and I don't think they're going to have a reason for it,” John continued, “They don't they don't make them like that anymore, right? So that's a classic right there. Look at the beauty of the church."
No injuries have been reported. The fire department says they are still investigating the cause of the fire.
