Arson Suspected in Fire at Church’s Food Bank
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A small, possibly arson-started fire Sunday at a church-owned food bank in Watts prompted Los Angeles County’s House of Worship Arson Task Force to investigate the incident.
Some church and county officials said they do not believe the blaze was related to race or hate issues, or to a string of arson fires at black churches in the South.
The fire, which was extinguished by workers at the Lighthouse Church of God in Christ before firefighters arrived, was apparently set near the outside stairway of a building next to the church that houses the congregation’s food bank.
Alan Masumoto of the Los Angeles Fire Department estimated the damage at $9,000. He said the fire appeared unrelated to a string of nearly 40 black church burnings in the South since January 1995.
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