Authorities investigate historic black church fire in South Carolina

An African-American church in South Carolina that was burned down By the Ku Klux Klan in 1995 caught fire yet again Tuesday night though authorities say it’s too soon to say what had caused the blaze. No one is believed to be in the church at the time it went ablaze.

According to Foxnews, the fire that erupted at Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville broke out at a time when federal authorities are investigating other fires at other predominantly black churches including one near Aiken-but so far the fires don’t appear to be related.

Greelyville is a town of 400 people; about 50 miles from Charleston, where the deadly shooting of a pastor and nine members of a historic black church occurred June in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime.

State Law Enforcement Division agents had been on their way to church before the fire was extinguished, Division Chief Mark Keel said. But he said they will have to wait until the hot spots are put before using dogs and other investigative tools to figure out what started it. He said investigators will be on the scene first thing Wednesday morning.

Keel added that, they were aware that they had some intense storms of late, and that a witness had stated that they had a lot of lightening down there during the night, but were not sure if it had anything to do with it.

The image of orange flames coming from the same church the KKK burned down 20 years ago brought up painful memories, said the Williamsburg County Councilman Eddie Woods Jr., who got out of bed to drive to the church after hearing about the fire.

All the fires currently under investigation broke out says after the killing in Charleston at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Dylan Roof has been charged with nine accounts of murder in the shootings, and the FBI is investigating links between the 21-year-old white man and hate manifesto that showed up online along with photos of him.

Be social, please share!

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail