SWEETLAND, W.Va. — A Lincoln County community is left reeling following an early morning blaze that gutted the building housing Middle Fork Baptist Church.
Multiple emergency crews responded to the fire at the Sweetland at around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday and fought the flames for more than five hours.
Daniel Salmons, a deacon at the church, tells MetroNews he heard about the fire when he woke up Tuesday morning and received a call from a Sunday school teacher.
“I was sick to my stomach. Then when I turned the corner here in my vehicle, I got sicker to my stomach,” Salmons said.
Upon arrival, crews from Hamlin, Duval, West Hamlin, and Morrisvale volunteer fire departments were working on flames coming from the back of the building’s roof near the kitchen area.
Fire officials were scheduled to arrive back on the state Route 3 scene mid-Tuesday afternoon but preliminary reports indicate the fire may have been electrical and started in the kitchen area. No one was injured.
The damage was extensive with most parts of the roof collapsed. A few items in the kitchen area remained untouched along with some bibles in the rubble and the wooden cross standing in front of the church.
Current scene at the Middle Fork Baptist Church in the Sweetland community of Lincoln County. Officials say the church caught fire around 1:30 am this morning. I spoke with the deacon of the church. Hear from him this afternoon: @WVMetroNews @580WCHS pic.twitter.com/C77zt2UMQs
— Jake Flatley (@JakeFlatley) January 28, 2020
According to Salmons, the church known as “The Little Church on the Hill” was built in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He said 85 people attended this past Sunday morning worship service. The previous Sunday, nearly 100 parishioners were inside.
“There is a lot of fond memories here,” Salmons said. “When you’ve been here so long at a little country church, you know everybody in the community. Even if they don’t come you know everybody here.
“There has been a lot of people stopping today (Tuesday) that don’t come to this church but they are stopping to see about the church and helping.”
One of those that stopped by was Rick Walls, the deacon at neighboring Middle Creek Baptist Church. He told MetroNews that his church is opening its doors to those at Middle Fork.
“This was the devil’s work,” Walls said. “It’s a sad situation, that’s what I was thinking. It’s a sad situation for anyone. This could happen to anyone. It’s going to be a setback to the entire community.”
Walls said Middle Fork has recently added onto the old church just in the past couple of years including a new baptism area.
Salmons said multiple churches, including Middle Creek, have reached out to offer help and its building for service. He said he is hopeful the Middle Fork community will be back together again in the same place for worship at some point.
“The earliest we will be back here is December probably,” he said. “That would be if everything goes well. That would be a good Christmas gift, I think. That’s our goal but the recovery just started today (Tuesday).”
West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office is leading the investigation.