ATF, state fire marshal investigate blaze that damaged historic Mission church
Federal and state investigators on Friday were poring over the charred remains of a building belonging to the First Baptist Church of Mission that was heavily damaged by fire the day before, a spokesman said.
The blaze swept through the building at 5641 Outlook St. Thursday evening, eventually reaching the attic and causing the roof to collapse.
Investigators arrived Friday morning and entered the building, focusing their investigation on the area with the most fire damage, said John Ham, a spokesman with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Kansas City.
“There is a congressional mandate that the ATF to investigate fires at houses of worship,” Ham said. “We’re working jointly with the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s office.”
Often times people wrongfully assume that when the ATF joins in an investigation there’s an assumption that a criminal act has occurred, Ham said. That is not necessarily the case, but it is always a possibility going into an investigation.
“But at this point in the investigation, we haven’t found anything that would substantiate that, although its fairly early in the investigation,” he said.
The fire was reported just before 5:30 p.m. Arriving firefighter could see the flames and smoke pouring from the buildings roof. The fire had already breached the attic. The building was unoccupied by the time the first crews arrived and no one was hurt in the blaze.
“Fortunately there are two different structures here and we were able to keep the fire contained to the north structure,” Deputy Chief of Operations Steve Chick, with the Consolidated Fire District 2 in Johnson County, said Thursday night.
Approximately 40 firefighters and emergency medical personnel from the Consolidated Fire District, Overland Park and Shawnee fire departments and Johnson County Med-Act fought to save the building.
But because the fire had reached the attic, it was unsafe for crews to mount an interior attack of the fire and could only fight the flames from above using aerial ladders.
The building is a total loss, Chick said.
Fire investigators will work to determine what ignited the blaze, looking at all possibilities including whether the fire had been set.
“As evidence allows us, we will start ruling things out,” Ham said. “That’s the phase we are in right now.”
Ham reiterated that they do not see anything that is indicating it was a criminal act, but it is something that he said they have to be able to rule out in its entirety.
“We always start with that on the table and then rule it out as soon as we can,” Ham said.
Based on the size of the building and the amount of damage, investigators hope to have a preliminary cause later Friday. He said there were three investigators from the Kansas Fire Marshal’s office and five from the ATF.
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 11:02 AM.
