A fire on Wednesday morning ripped through a historic church in South Boston, making officials fear of a resulting collapse, Boston.com reported.
The fire at St. John the Baptist Church, an Albanian Orthodox church, was reported at 9:13 a.m. and forced firefighters to work more than four hours to clear up the fire and smoke. While the fire was out by the early afternoon, fire officials were still clearing the area and said working well into the night is a definite possibility.
"It looks like it's going to be a total loss," said John Hasson, acting chief of the fire department.
No one was inside the church during the fire and there are no reported civilian injuries. According to officials, eight firefighters suffered minor injuries. Hasson said the call was originally about a grass fire in the back of the building but was a much different scene when officials arrived.
"Upon arrival, firefighters forced entry into the building," he said. "There was heavy fire around the altar, up the walls, and it extended into the ceiling and roof areas."
Once the firefighters entered the church, the ceiling began to fall down and everyone was evacuated, fighting the fire from outside. Hasson said they had to wait for the fire to blaze through the roof in order to put out the fire since locating it's origin was difficult to do from outside the building.
According to Hasson, the church is located in a densely population area, so firefighters were working hard to ensure that the fire wouldn't spread. He had officials set up a collapse zone to protect people in the surrounding area.
Fire officials reportedly believe the fire started in the altar. However, a church official told reporters there wouldn't have been any candles burning at the time since they were burned out after Sunday's mass.
