Fire breaks out at Arizona church used as shelter, leaving the building badly damaged

SEATTLE - A multi-use church building in Phoenix, Arizona, was badly damaged after a fire broke out during the early hours of Sunday. The Alhambra Beloved Community Church, located near 19th Avenue and Indian School Road, was used to shelter people experiencing homelessness, hold classes for the community and offered a wide range of youth sports programs, among other purposes.

The fire was reported to local firefighters at around 1 a.m.. Cpt. Rob McDade, a spokesperson for the Phoenix Fire Department, said firefighters found a fast-moving fire that appeared to have started in the gymnasium and extended into classrooms on the first and second floors of the building.

Firefighters used an aggressive interior attack to fight the flames, preventing the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings on the property, including the main church.

Built by volunteers in the mid-1900s, the Alhambra Beloved Community Church and its gymnasium are considered to be an architecturally significant space, according to Alison King, an expert on midcentury design in Arizona and the founder of Modern Phoenix.

According to the Arizona Central, the building remained largely intact thanks to the quick response from firefighters, but nearly everything inside was destroyed. Authorities reported no injuries or displacements by the fire, while investigators say it is too early to determine the cause of the fire.

"All the stuff that we used to serve the community was over there," said Wayne Wynter, lead pastor at Alhambra Beloved Community. "And it seemed like all of it was burnt up."

Wynter said police were exploring possible signs of a forced entry, but investigators have not given him an estimate on how long it would take to identify the cause of the fire.

Wynter said he's relieved no one was killed or hurt. People experiencing homelessness were welcome to stay in the community center during the day, but the building was locked up and empty at night.

Before the fire, the church was used to provide important services to the community and had partnered with outside nonprofits to deliver these services.

Josh Dailey, executive pastor at Alhambra Beloved Community Church, said his primary mission is figuring out how he can help the nonprofits they partnered with that no longer have the space and supplies to service the community.

"That's the biggest concern right now," Dailey said. "A lot of nonprofit organizations have been using the space to do work through the church here, and so we want to make sure they're back in action fast," Dailey added.