[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/25/a-black-church-in-north-carolina-was-deliberately-set-ablaze-officials-say/[/url] [quote]A fire that engulfed a small, predominantly black church in Charlotte was set on purpose, local officials said Wednesday. Now they are trying to determine whether the act of arson was a hate crime. “Shock. Disbelief,” co-Pastor Rhonda Kinsey told Time Warner Cable News. “You hear about it, but you never imagine you would have a fire at your church.” The 911 call came in just before 1 a.m. on Wednesday, an urgent report from a resident of a nearby apartment complex. “Briar Creek Road, the Baptist Church at Briar Creek Road … it’s on fire,” the caller said. “It’s really big.” Within half an hour, more than 75 firefighters had responded to the three-alarm blaze. Flames leaped through the roof of the church complex’s central building, and smoke billowed into the darkness. Coupled with the already feverish temperatures of a North Carolina summer, the heat from the fire was overpowering. It took over an hour to get the blaze under control — [b]by then it had caused more than $250,000 worth of damage and completely demolished the church’s main building, which housed classrooms.[/b] No civilians were hurt, though two firefighters suffered mild heat-related injuries, according to Charlotte Fire Department Public Information Manager Cynthia Robbins Shah-Khan.[/quote] (._.)