Fillmore church destroyed in fire

On any other Sunday, Christian Evangelical Church on Third Street in Fillmore would have offered a Bible study at 2 p.m., followed by services at 4 p.m.

Instead, the Spanish-speaking congregants had to find other ways to get spiritual sustenance after an early morning fire destroyed their church and displaced the pastor and his family, who lived nearby on the property.

The family of six escaped unharmed in the 4:50 a.m. blaze that first consumed the steeple, which collapsed into the modest, one-story building. Firefighters extinguished the fire in about an hour, and investigators were trying to determine the cause.

“When units arrived on the scene, the fire was shooting out of the three-story steeple like a Roman candle,” Fillmore Fire Chief Keith Gurrola said.

Pastor Cesar Perez declined to comment Sunday except to say that he and his wife and their four children were safe. He said he was trying to figure out what to do next for church members.

On Sunday, churches in Fillmore took up collections for the congregation, and offered up their buildings to Perez to hold services.

By noon, crews and investigators had left the scene, and a city staffer was fastening a red-tag sign to the church's front door. The home where the pastor’s family lived, just feet away from the church, was yellow-tagged, meaning they will likely be able to eventually return.

Water dripped from the façade above the front door and the smell of smoke lingered in the air.

Larry Spencer, who has lived in Fillmore for more than 50 years, drove to the quiet, residential neighborhood after hearing there had been a fire at a warehouse in the area. His heart sank when he saw what had burned down.

“I said to my wife, ‘Oh my God, it’s the Nazarene church,” Spencer said Sunday, standing on the sidewalk. It had once been a Nazarene church that he attended.

“They lost everything,” he said. “In a small town, for a church to go up in flames like this, it’s really something.”

Another longtime resident, Kathy Meza, occasionally visited when it was the Faith Miracle Revival Center in the 1980s. She went there again Sunday to see what had happened to the building.

“It’s just very sad,” Meza said. “They had wonderful worship services there. Now it’s all burned up."

Spencer, a member of the First Baptist Church in Fillmore, said many were heartbroken by what befell their brethren at Christian Evangelical on Sunday morning.

“Our whole congregation, we prayed for their church,” he said.