A three-alarm fire consumed a Bushwick church on Wednesday morning.
The fire started at the more than century-old Iglesia Pentecostal Arca Cristiana at 1155 Halsey Street at around 10:30 a.m., and firefighters moved in “aggressively,” said FDNY Chief of Operations Kevin Woods.
But with the bell tower and a large portion of the wood-framed church engulfed in flames and the building at risk of collapse, firefighters were forced to retreat and work to control the fire from outside.
Heavy smoke was visible for miles around Brooklyn as more than 140 firefighters fought for hours to control the flames, even as they and their equipment became covered in icicles in the freezing weather.
The bell tower collapsed, Woods said, and Wednesday afternoon, there was “extensive damage to the church.”
“It’s probably, most likely, a full demo,” he said.
With the fire under control on Wednesday afternoon, the FDNY requested a structural inspection of the church, according to Department of Buildings documents.
Flames also scorched a building beside the church, though the fire did not spread further than that. No injuries were reported, and the only person inside the church when the fire started was the pastor, who evacuated himself safely.
One neighbor said the smoke from the fire was so thick “you couldn’t really breathe or see.”
Another, Susie Rosa, said she grew up attending the church, which was built around 1910.
“That was my church when I was a little girl, it was my family’s church over the years,” she said. “I have lots of happy memories there.”
FDNY fire marshals will investigate the cause of the fire.
Brooklyn has seen a host of unrelated but devastating fires in recent weeks. A Feb. 9 house fire in Bay Ridge killed a 37-year-old Navy veteran, and 11 people were rescued from a two-alarm fire in a Crown Heights brownstone days later.
