North Mississippi Church Catches On Fire

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CORINTH, Miss. (WCBI)- Right as we were switching over into our new time zone change, a Corinth church went up in flames.

First United Methodist Church has been a staple in the Corinth community for over 100 years, but Sunday morning the church received a devastating blow.”

“911 got a call from our neighbor who also happens to be a church member around 2 o’clock this morning about the church being on fire,” said church administrator Chuck Stringer.

That was not the news Stringer wanted to wake up to this morning.

Thankfully no one was inside the church when the fire happened, but the church did received major damage to it’s fellowship hall.

Stringer said he arrived to the church about an hour after the fire happened.

He said the fire was put out by the time he arrived, but the damage it left behind was incredible.

“It’s hard to describe, it’s kind of disheartening,” said Stringer.  “We had just started renovating in that building and we had just finished the floors and we were getting ready to put a new heat and air conditioning system in this week.”

Stringer said the fire started out in the upper landing of the church’s fellowship hall.

The fire caused extensive damage to the church’s fellowship hall and left smoke damage all long the church’s walls.

“This is a spread out campus with lots of different buildings so it was pretty much isolated into one section,” said Stringer.

The early morning fire caused the church to have to cancel its Sunday morning service, but that didn’t stop members from coming out to offer their assistance.

“There’s been a lot of church members here, we have a Day Care and we’re looking at moving our day care to a sister church here in Corinth that has allowed us to use their facilities,” said Stringer.

Sunday consisted of church members moving and cleaning items out of the damaged area, along with airing out the church.

Although the fire came unexpected, Stringer said this incident won’t stop the church from moving forward.

“It’s an obstacle to  get over but we’re a very resilient group of people and we’ll do well and we’ll make do,” said Stringer.

Despite Sunday’s  fire, the church doors will still remain open this week for it’s regular weekly meetings, and church service will resume next Sunday.

No one was injured in this incident, and the cause of the fire is still under investigation by the State Fire Marshall.