CNN is reporting that senior FBI officials on Wednesday are saying the fire that gutted the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church near the rural town of Greeleyville, South Carolina on Tuesday night was likely caused by lightning.
Greeleyville is a small town of about 400 people, located 50 miles north of Charleston, S.C. State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel said, “We do know they apparently had some strong storms.Talked to a guy who said they had a lot of lightning down there tonight. I don’t know whether that had anything to do with it at all.”
The fire at the predominately black house of worship apparently started around the same time a heavy lightning storm passed through the area. Officials say there were four lightning strikes around the area of the church, all occurring at about the same time, according to the Associated Press and reported by Newser.
The Greeleyville, S.C. church is now the seventh black church to be destroyed by fire since the massacre on June 17 that left nine parishioners dead at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston.
What is particularly distressing to parishioners of Mt. Zion church is the painful memories that have been resurrected of the church being burned down 20 years ago by the Ku Klux Klan. The church was rebuilt then, and the pastor of Mt. Zion is already telling news media it will be rebuilt again.
No injuries were reported in the fire that took over two hours to put out Tuesday night, the Clarendon County Fire Department said around midnight ET. Williamsburg County Fire Chief Randy Swinton told NBC News the 8,000-square-foot church had been gutted.