ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – Crews responded to an church fire overnight in Anderson County.
The Hopewell Fire Department said the fire began shortly after midnight at the North Anderson Seventh Day Adventist Church on Highway 81.
Firefighters said they were able to extinguish the fire within 30 minutes.
No injuries were reported. No one was inside the church at the time of the fire, according to firefighters.
“It was a devastating scene,” Kristin Johnson, the church’s women’s ministry leader, said.
Steve Soileau, who lives next door to the church, said the fire started around the same time that lightning struck in the area.
“Around 12 o’clock or so, I heard a boom,” Soileau explained. “It was really close like lightning. It shook the whole house really bad.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Investigators walked through what was left of the church Monday morning as members of the church arrived to see the damage.
“Everything was lost,” Johnson said.
Johnson told 7NEWS the church had gathered for services on Saturday. Their members are now leaning on each other for support.
“I’ve been living here for 18 years,” Johnson said. “Anytime anything like this happens, it seems like the community comes together to help out.”
Johnson said the church plans to hold services in their gymnasium until they can rebuild.
“That will be nice to have a place to meet that it [fire] didn’t destroy,” Johnson said. “We’ll do that for now and see what happens. We definitely plan to continue to meet and grow.”
