4 More Alabama Churches Burned
Alabama church fire probe spreads to four more on rural roads
BOLIGEE, Ala. -- In a grimly familiar scene, four rural Alabama churches were found damaged or destroyed by fires Tuesday, less than a week after a string of five church fires that were ruled arson.
At three of the latest burned churches, the fires appeared to erupt in the sanctuary near the altar, according to church members and authorities, one of whom said two of the fires were found to be arson.
FBI acting assistant director Chip Burrus said investigators are working on the assumption that all nine of the Alabama church fires are linked.
"Clearly there's a suspected link," Burrus said in an interview with The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. "I'm not prepared to talk about the evidence yet ... but common sense tells you there is a clear indication these fires are going to be linked."
Authorities have no suspects or motive, Burrus said.
Flames were visible near the pulpit and smoke was pouring out windows when Johnny Archibald arrived at Morning Star Baptist at Boligee about 6:45 a.m. He said a side door had been forcibly opened and the fire appeared to be deliberately set near the altar.
"They had kicked the door in," he said. "Evidently they had set the pulpit on fire and went out the front door."
Investigators said the latest fires erupted overnight at churches in a cluster in three rural west Alabama counties about 60 miles from the Bibb County area where the five church arsons occurred early Friday. Two of the four reported Tuesday were destroyed, and two were damaged; the Bibb County fires destroyed three and damaged two.
Archibald said he thought of the Bibb County fires immediately when he saw Morning Star Baptist going up in flames.
"I don't know what's going on. It's just sickness," he said.
The four were in hamlets near the Mississippi line about 10 to 20 miles from each other. All were in sparsely populated areas off rural roads, similar to those in Bibb County, just south of Birmingham. One of the four, Galilee Baptist at Panola in Sumter County, was off a dirt road, allowing investigators to get tire tracks from the mud.
"Obviously we're going to investigate these as suspected arsons," said Ragan Ingram, a spokesman for the state insurance agency that oversees fire investigations.
Ingram said that in the past five years there have been 59 church fires in Alabama, including the nine reported in the past four days, and 19 were ruled arsons.
Rich Marianos, a spokesman for the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency, said more than 50 agents are now assigned to the investigation in Alabama. He said ATF is now in charge of the federal-state probe.
"This is our No. 1 priority nationally," he said.
Marianos said it was too soon to determine if the nine fires were linked.
At Dancy First Baptist, a brick church on two-lane Alabama Highway 17 near Aliceville in Pickens County, the sanctuary sustained smoke damage. "The pulpit's been burned up," said Joe Simmons, a church deacon who wondered if the west Alabama fires were the work of copycats after media attention.
"It does appear to be arson," said Pickens County Sheriff David Abston. He said volunteer firefighters responded to a burglar alarm that went off at 5:13 a.m.
Sheriff's officers were called to Spring Valley Baptist near Emelle in Sumter County at 6:49 a.m. Chief Deputy Eddie Larkin said a fire was apparently set in the sanctuary near the pulpit but smoldered and went out on its own.
Ingram said officials officially ruled the fires at Dancy First Baptist and Spring Valley Baptist to be arson Tuesday night.
It appeared that a door had been knocked off its hinges, apparently by force, at Spring Valley Baptist.
Ingram said earlier that investigators believe all five Bibb County fires were linked. He said they are pursuing several leads but "the leads haven't led us to a specific suspect or a motive."
The FBI said it is looking into whether the Bibb County fires are a civil rights violation under laws covering attacks on religious property, and state and federal rewards totaling $10,000 have been offered.
By late morning, firefighters at Boligee were spraying down the smoking rubble of Morning Star Baptist. Burned to its concrete block foundation, all that remained of the wood-frame building was the front steps and handrail.
Archibald, who lives near the church, said he and another man used an ax to remove the kicked-in side door for use as possible evidence. It had a footprint on it.
At least two of the churches set afire in Bibb County - Antioch Baptist and Old Union Baptist - also had doors kicked in, according to church members. Similar to the reports from three of the west Alabama churches, the fire at Old Union also had been set at the altar but was extinguished before it did extensive damage.
Morning Star and Galilee Baptist, both wood-frame buildings, were destroyed. Both Dancy First Baptist and Spring Valley Baptist, which were damaged, are brick buildings.
All nine churches are Baptist, the dominant faith in the area. Four in Bibb County are members of the Southern Baptist Convention, while the other five are not.
Agents investigating the Bibb County fire said Tuesday they were looking for a dark-colored sport-utility vehicle, possibly a Nissan Pathfinder, in connection with the blazes.
Members of Old Union Baptist Church in Brierfield told The Associated Press in interviews that they saw a dark Pathfinder near the building as they arrived to put out a fire shortly after 4 a.m. Friday.
At Boligee, Archibald said he was told by a resident that a sport-utility vehicle had been seen running through an intersection near the church without stopping.
The state fire marshal's office, meanwhile, said a sixth fire that broke out at a church in rural Chilton County on Thursday afternoon before the Bibb County blazes had been determined to be accidental and unrelated to the arson cases.
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Posted by Editor at February 8, 2006 12:40 AM
