An arson investigation is underway after the second fire this week left a church destroyed in the Chesterfield Square neighborhood of Los Angeles Thursday.
Firefighters were called to the Holy Apostolic Pentecostal church in the 2100 block of West Slauson Avenue when the most recent blaze was reported just after 3:15 a.m. Thursday.
Arriving crewmembers were forced into a defensive mode when they found heavy fire showing from the one-story commercial building.
Video from the scene shortly after 4 a.m. showed firefighters trying to battle the flames from on top of the roof.
The fire started in an adjacent vacant unit that shares a wall with the church.
The adjacent unit contained a lot of furniture that caught fire before the flames spread and engulfed the church.
It took firefighters more than an hour to extinguish the blaze.
On Tuesday, the initial fire erupted around 10:30 p.m.
About 50 firefighters forced entry into the church and adjacent building to fight the flames.
Crews managed to keep that fire from spreading to the church but heavy smoke left it unusable.
“Oh my God we’re not going to be able to do worship in there,” a woman who arrived at the church said after the fire.
An arson investigator has been sent to determine the cause of the fires.
“We don’t know at his time if they are connected but what we do know is that we had two of them,” LAFD Capt. Adam Van Gerpen said.
The building was determined to be a total loss with officials deciding it would be best to demolish what was left of the church after Thursday’s fire.