FORT ASHBY, W.Va. — A fire that destroyed a church building in Mineral County Wednesday was the target of the man who set the blaze, Mineral County Sheriff Jeremy Taylor said.
Caleb Lusk, 27, of Fort Ashby, set the fire that destroyed the Berean Independent Baptist Church on Dan’s Run Road “out of spite”, according to Taylor.
Lusk was depressed and having domestic problems and allegedly targeted the church because his wife and family were attending there, Sheriff Taylor said.
Lusk is charged with first degree arson. He’s being held in the Potomac Highlands Regional Jail on $75,000 bail.
Investigators with the state Fire Marshal’s Office quickly concluded the blaze was an arson, Fort Ashby VFD Chief James Wasson said.
Just some things we had seen around the scene, some things that were there at the buildings, some patterns that burned and the gut feeling that it was very suspicious,” Wasson said.
The fire is believed to have started a few hours earlier than it was spotted because of dense fog early Wednesday morning.
“The building is a total loss. The fire already vented through the roof. The majority of the roof was already gone when the first units arrived on the scene,” Wasson said. “The fire had been burning for quite a few hours before it was noticed.”
The church was built in the 1970’s.