A Level 4 fire destroyed a church in New Jersey on Monday. The fire, which started around 6:00 p.m. (local time), engulfed the church, located at the Fountain of Life Center in Burlington County, in flames and burned it to the ground. This is how Raws Alerts narrated the event:
🚨#BREAKING: Multiple firefighters are battling a massive Church fire
⁰📌#Burlington | #NewJerseyPresently, a substantial 4-alarm fire is being combated by multiple firefighters and other departments at the Fountain of Life Center church located in Burlington, New Jersey.… https://t.co/n19fjjTUcp pic.twitter.com/SwGsbMcwTe
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) March 21, 2023
A total of 150 firefighters from New Jersey and Pennsylvania responded to the scene in an attempt to extinguish the flames but were not immediately successful. At 7:30 p.m. (local time) the volume of the fire caused the fire to rise to Category 4 of 5. That prompted further safety measures including road closures, as reported by the New Jersey Department of Forest Services Twitter account:
ROAD CLOSURE - Rancocas Road, Westampton, Burlington County
New Jersey Forest Fire Service activity has closed Rancocas Road in Westampton between Cullen Road and Irick Road.
A wildfire burning in Rancocas State Park is expected to be contained at under 30 acres. pic.twitter.com/scB2l8MLJy
— New Jersey Forest Fire Service (@njdepforestfire) March 20, 2023
"A devastating loss"
Russell Hodgins, senior pastor of the Fountain of Life Center, gave a statement which was later reported by CBS, that the destruction of the church in the fire is "a devastating loss":
The sanctuary's just been completely burned. The roof collapsing is a pretty embedded image in my mind. When we saw that drop into the sanctuary, that was a pretty devastating image.
The flames also affected a Christian education center attached to the church. The ferocity of the fire, Florence Township Fire District Administrator Robert Tharp told Reuters, prompted a change in the strategy authorities followed to put out the blaze:
Firefighters did a tremendous job of trying to stop the fire interiorly, it was just the size of the building the amount of fire that was here we had to switch our operation to a defensive operation.
At this time, the Department of Forest Fire Services said, the causes of the fire is unknown and an investigation is currently underway:
Forest Fire Service crews are on scene and have begun a backfiring operation to aide in containment. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
No further updates are expected to be released for this incident.
— New Jersey Forest Fire Service (@njdepforestfire) March 20, 2023
