Blaze breaks out at Baptist church for second time this month

A two-alarm fire took down New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Wilmington late Wednesday night and left one firefighter injured.

The fire, which broke out around 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, was the second fire to break out in the church in two weeks, media reports said. The causes of the fires are unknown, and investigators would not confirm or deny that the final fire was suspicious.

Fire crews arrived on the scene and realized that the church was beyond rescue and that their efforts should be directed to saving the nearby homes. Six homes were damaged.

“I’m really brokenhearted because my dad built that church, and so now it’s gone,” Mary Dungee, the daughter of the late Rev. Alarchia Jackson, told ABC Philadelphia.

“For them to come and see these people — their homes are all messed up and the church is gone — it’s heartbreaking, it really is, but I trust in God.”

Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been brought to the scene to investigate and determine whether the fire was a hate crime.

Matt Lee is a Web producer for Metro New York. He writes about almost everything and anything. Talk to him (or yell at him) on Twitter so he doesn’t feel lonely@mattlee2669.