This post has been updated.
The fire at a historically black church in Greeleyville, S.C. on Tuesday night was likely not a case of arson, a federal law enforcement official told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Local and federal law authorities are still investigating a fire at Mount Zion AME Church, which was burned down by Ku Klux Klan members in 1995, but federal law enforcement said that the preliminary investigation indicated the fire was not intentionally set.
The fire at the Mount Zion AME Church is the latest in a string of seven fires at black churches across the South. In the wake of the shooting at the Emanuel AME church in Charleston, authorities are investigating whether the fires are linked or racially motivated. Officials have ruled at least three of the fires arson.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel told the Post and Courier that local officials, as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the fire in Greeleyville on Tuesday night.
By Wednesday morning, the fire had destroyed the church’s roof and interior, according to CNN.
Keel noted that the fire may have been ignited by lightning, as storms passed through the region on Tuesday, according to the Post and Courier. But he said that he was concerned about the possibility that the fire is somehow linked to the other fires in the region.
“Certainly, I think we all are concerned about those things,” Keel told the Post and Courier.
Shameful…
I’ll bet my soc. sec. check it wasn’t an “electrical” fire. And it didn’t start in a trash can. I would be surprised if it was weather caused.
Where is the religious freedom contingent? Now here is a cause that should be right up their alley.
It’s WRJWD: What Republican Jesus Would Do.
Repent and reload…Praise Jeeeezusssssuh’
Every cop show or crime procedural has taught me one consistent rule: there’s no such thing as a COINCIDENCE. So a string of seven fires? What would - sherlock, bones, gibbs, castle, archer, hammer, marple, monk, poirot, wolfe, and drew - think?