ORANGE PARK, Fla. — A local church was reduced to charred rubble Thursday night, destroying the St. Simon Baptist Church in Orange Park.
Church members said the structure may be destroyed but the congregation remains strong.
“The first time there’s trouble a lot of people run away,” said Senior Deacon Lester Perry. “At St. Simon Baptist Church, we stay together and that’s how we’ve been for years.”
The community and officials are looking for answers as to what caused the fire.
Officials displayed signs at the scene that state arson is suspected to be the cause of the fire. Officials later clarified after displaying the signs that arson isn’t their only theory.
A detective on scene said the church cleared a lot of its furniture and objects out as the church was undergoing renovations. Many wonder how the blaze grew so massive without a lot of objects on the inside to feed it.
“It was a panic because we didn’t believe a church that didn’t have anything inside of it would burn like that,” Perry said.
The church has also been grappling with the guilty plea by their Pastor William Randall, who last week confessed to the sexual battery of a child and faces up to life in prison.
Those charges were filed in 2018, but Perry said Randall remained the leader of the church, even to this day.
“We never, never dismissed our pastor,” Perry said. “Because he’s the founding pastor.”
Robert Bryson, a supervisor with ATF said Randall’s case will be taken into account during the investigation.
“That is something you could look to possible suspects to that,” Bryson said. “They can bring in a K-9 that is specially trained to alert if gasoline or accelerants have been added and that would tell us if its been an arson.”
If you know anything about this case, call 1-877-662-7766 for a reward of up to $5,000.