During the September fire the rear half of the Bethany Baptist Church on North Sixth Street in Keokuk had most of the major fire and smoke damage.
KEOKUK, IA -- The congregation of the Bethany Baptist Church in Keokuk had a decision to make after a fire there in September.
Either tear down the church and start over, or try to fix the damage.
But after a second fire this weekend, there might not be a choice left for church members to make; it may have been made for them.
KHQA's Jarod Wells was in Keokuk today to find out more.
Fire first hit the church in September of this year. That fire was eventually labeled arson. Now, just 3 months later another arson fire has struck the church. This one requiring more than 30 firefighters and an entire day to extinguish the flames.
During the September fire the rear half of the Bethany Baptist Church on North Sixth Street in Keokuk had most of the major fire and smoke damage. During the most recent fire, fire fighters were called to the scene just after midnight Saturday morning. The wing that holds the bible school and sunday school classes took the majority of the heat.
"Right now we have some evidence that's been collected that's been sent to the state lab for determination of what were looking for," said Keokuk Fire Chief Mark Wessel. "The rest of it's on going as trying to develop a suspect, trying to figure out how everything is occuring and trying to get this stopped."
The Keokuk Police and Fire Department are leading the arson investigation. But they have also been joined by the State Fire Marshall and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. Chief Wessel says ATF is helping because of a presidential order during the Clinton administration that says all church fires have to be reported to the ATF. I also spoke with Police Cheif Tom Crew. He says the communtiy will play a big part in solving this case.
"Its a worry to us and in the whole community," said Police Chief Tom Crew. "I've said this time and time again. It takes a community to police a community. Theres more people's eyes and ears out there than we are at any given time in uniform and squad cars. So anybody with any information could hel us in this and any investigation."
Both Crew and Wessel say arson cases are hard to solve. Evidence is hard to gather as many times it is destroyed in the fire. And it takes alot of hours and man power during the investigation. But they are both confident this case will come to an end.
"With the resources we have available to us and the amount of invetigators and people actually working the case, I cant' put a time line on it," said Chief Crew, "but we wont quit investigating until we come ti some type of a conclusion."
"If the arsonist goes away that doesn't mean the investigation's going to go away," said Chief Wessel. "Were going to pursue this and continue it. We're going to work on it, its a priority."
Investigators have been talking to neighbors and people who may have been in the area during the fire.
As Chief Crew said, any piece of information will help the investigation.
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