TROY – Fire personnel are on the scene of a 4-alarm fire that broke out inside a Troy church early Thursday morning.
Emergency crews responded to Troy Church of Christ on Trombley Road around 3:15 a.m. After entering the building initially, the roof reportedly suffered a partial collapse, which required firefighters to try and put the fire out from the outside. The building was unoccupied when crews entered.
“It’s hard for us. When we get here we want to put the fire out and save as much property as possible. And when we have to go to this defensive posture, it’s hard for our guys because they just want to go back in and put the fire out,” said Lt. Keith Young with the Troy Fire Department.
The church’s pastor, Manuel Florescu, has been on the scene of the fire since first getting notified around 3:20 a.m., calling the blaze “devastating.”
“This is more than a building for us, it’s kind of a second home,” Florescu said of the church, which first opened in 1958. “This church has been here since before any of the houses were around it. This was a dirt road when the church was built.”
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire and no injuries have been reported.
Florescu says church services will continue in the interim from a different location.
“As far as I’m concerned, the church is not the building, the church is the people,” he said. “The church is going to go on. We’re going to meet on Sunday, just from a different location. Our faith is going to be the same.”