Two fires, only days apart, destroy historically black Baptist churches in St. Landry Parish

[TexasTowelie]

Congregants at Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas are reeling after fire tore through their house of worship Tuesday — the second church fire in St. Landry Parish in one week.

The Rev. Harry Richard, the church’s pastor for 16 years, stood on the roadside and watched as the rubble continued to smoke around 10:30 a.m. Richard said he received a call about the fire around 2:15 a.m., and when he arrived at the church in the 1400 block of Highway 742, he found the church building fully engulfed.

“At that moment I felt like there was no hope,” Richard said.

The Louisiana State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the blaze. Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were sifting through the smoking debris Tuesday morning, working to collect potential evidence and help determine the source and cause of the fire.

Read more: https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/crime_police/article_325ab146-5554-11e9-80a3-9b7ee324494b.html

Cross-posted in the Louisiana Group.

[Eugene]

1. 3 Black Churches Have Burned in 10 Days in a Single Louisiana Parish

Source: New York Times

3 Black Churches Have Burned in 10 Days in a Single Louisiana Parish

By Richard Fausset
April 5, 2019

ATLANTA — Three historically black churches have burned in less than two weeks in one south Louisiana parish, where officials said they had found “suspicious elements” in each case. The officials have not ruled out the possibility of arson, or the possibility that the fires are related.

“There is clearly something happening in this community,” State Fire Marshal H. Browning said in a statement on Thursday. “That is why it is imperative that the citizens of this community be part of our effort to figure out what it is.”

The three fires occurred on March 26, Tuesday and Thursday in St. Landry Parish, north of Lafayette. A fourth fire, a small blaze that officials said was “intentionally set,” was reported on Sunday at a predominantly black church in Caddo Parish, about a three-hour drive north.

“But just as we haven’t connected the three in St. Landry, we haven’t connected the one in Caddo,” said Ashley Rodrigue, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, on Friday.

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/us/louisiana-black-church-fires.html

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Source: CBS/AP

By OMAR VILLAFRANCA CBS NEWS April 5, 2019, 6:38 PM

FBI investigating fires at black churches in Louisiana

Opelousas, La. — The FBI has joined the investigation into a string of suspicious fires at historically black churches in Louisiana. Three churches have burned in less than two weeks in St. Landry Parish near Baton Rouge.

The fire at Greater Union Baptist Tuesday burned from the roof to the pews. For Pastor Harry Richard, whose grandfather helped start the church more than 100 years ago, the damage is personal.

"He left a legacy for me and I was trying to fulfill that to the best of my ability," he said.

The suspicious fires began early last week, with the most recent one on Thursday. All three historically black baptist churches are just a few miles apart in St. Landry Parish.

"We do believe that this fire is suspicious. We do believe a crime has occurred," said Louisiana State Fire Marshal H. Butch Browning.

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Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/louisiana-churches-fbi-investigating-string-suspicious-fires-2019-04-05/