Arson Spree Feared In Church Blazes
Fires Erupt On Birmingham Backroads; No Discernible Motive
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Play CBS Video Video Church Arson Investigation The FBI has joined the investigation into a string of arson fires at small Baptist churches in rural Alabama. As Mark Strassmann reports, authorities have so far found no suspects and no motives.
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Video Six Alabama Church Fires In Bibb County, Ala., fires at six churches have been keeping firefighters busy. The pastor of one church, Ashby Baptist Church in Briersfield, discusses the destruction.
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Video Probe Into Ala. Church Arsons State and federal authorities are hoping a reward will prompt some leads in the investigation of five Baptist church burnings in Bibb County, Ala. Mark Strassmann reports.
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A firefighter sprays water on hot spots of a fire that destroyed Pleasant Sabine Baptist Church, Friday, Feb. 3, 2006, in Centreville, Ala. (AP)
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Firefighters spray water on the remains of Ashby Baptist Church Friday Feb. 3, 2006, near Brierfield, Ala. (AP)
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Volunteer firefighter Frank Wilson uses a hose to extinguish smoldering embers at Rehobeth Baptist Church in Lawley, Ala, on Friday, Feb. 3, 2006. (AP)
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Ashby Baptist Church in Brierfield, Alabama. (NNS)
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Firefighters battle an overnight blaze in Brierfield, Alabama. (NNS)
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Congregants alerted to the flames on a foggy night found some church buildings fully ablaze or collapsing into smoldering ruin. At one church, whose congregation dates back more than a century, members arrived just in time to put out a blaze that had been started under an American flag at the front of the sanctuary.
The cluster of fires in Bibb County (watch video) about 25 miles south of Birmingham were set "as fast as they could drive from one location to the next," Chief Deputy Sheriff Kenneth Weems said.
Jim Cavanaugh, head of the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office for Alabama and Tennessee, said it was clear the fires were purposely set. "Obviously they're arson. The thing is — what is the motivation?"
As soon as Leslie Evans arrived at Ashby Baptist early this morning, the fire became personal. The local fire chief couldn't stop his own church from burning to the ground, CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports.
"You get here, all your church members, all your firemen, belong to this church. I helped build this," Evans told Strassmann. "To watch it burn down is no good."
Unlike a 1996 outbreak of fires at black churches in Alabama and elsewhere, there was no common thread of race in this case. Four of the churches have white congregations and one is black. All were Baptist, the dominant faith in the area.
Cavanaugh said fires in churches can raise difficulties in finding a motive. "Anything you light in a church is going to be a symbol," he said.
A fire Thursday afternoon also heavily damaged a church about 20 miles away in Chilton County, but construction work had been going on there and it was not immediately clear if that blaze was connected to the others, said Ragan Ingram, a spokesman for the state insurance agency that oversees fire investigations.
Federal investigators, joining state and local authorities, said the arson probe would include the New Harmony Holiness church at Fairview in Chilton County.
There were no immediate arrests. Uncertain of a motive, authorities also did not know if one or more people took part.
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