RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. — A fire broke out at a church in Rancho Cordova early Saturday morning.
Initially, deputies with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Casa Fuego de Dios church after receiving reports of a potential burglary, where they saw smoking coming out of the building.
Fire crews from the Sacramento Metropolitan District were dispatched around 2:54 a.m. Due to the amount of smoke from the flames, officials upgraded the fire to a second-alarm fire.
Crews were able to use defensive measures to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby structures.
"It took about an hour to get the fire contained, right now we're at that phase of cleaning up and making sure that we have no more hotspots," said Metro Fire Captain Mark Nunez. "...Unfortunately, the building is a complete loss."
The sheriff’s office said fire personnel determined the building was unoccupied during the fire. No injuries have been reported.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Leaders of the church say security camera video shows a man breaking into the building and yelling curse words moments before the blaze began. Officials haven't confirmed whether the alleged break-in and fire are related.
"There is so much hate and sorrow in people's hearts," said Merlin Resuleo, the wife of the church's pastor. "We worked so hard, we put a lot of effort into this."
Resuleo says vandalism has been an ongoing problem. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office says they've received two calls from the church since October regarding homeless loitering.
"We've got several videos where (the vandal) has a shopping cart and throwing it against the walls and throwing it against the windows," said Resuleo. "On Wednesday, I came to have a music class, and when we were sitting there, I saw the window was breaking, and it was this huge rock he threw against the window. And before that, he broke another window that cost us like a thousand dollars."
The church building was demolished following the fire out of concerns for safety, fire officials said. Church leaders moved Sunday services to a second location off Cordova Lane. They have started a GoFundMe page to recoup from the damages.
"We are just in God's hands, and he's supposed to guide us to go through this," said Resuleo. "It's so hard for us."
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