{"id":296160,"date":"2026-07-15T00:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T00:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/296160\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T00:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T00:58:13","slug":"news-12-brooklyn-fdny-investigates-bushwick-fire-as-possibly-being-set-intentionally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/296160\/","title":{"rendered":"News 12 | Brooklyn | Fdny Investigates Bushwick Fire As Possibly Being Set Intentionally"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">The FDNY says they\u2019re investigating the possibility that <a data-rich-text-hyperlink=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/brooklyn.news12.com\/bushwick-church-fire-sends-heavy-smoke-into-area\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the fire<\/a> that tore down South Bushwick Reformed Church was set intentionally.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cIt adds another layer of grief to this situation. Obviously, you know, and hearing that news, we are even more disturbed, devastated that someone would intentionally target us. And we don&#8217;t know why,\u201d said Pastor James Steward.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">The three-alarm fire happened on June 19.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">While the <a data-rich-text-hyperlink=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/brooklyn.news12.com\/bushwick-community-fights-to-save-historic-church-as-demolition-plans-move-forward\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">church fights<\/a> to save what\u2019s left of the building, demolition crews could be seen at the site and there was a sign posted saying the demolition is scheduled for completion in August.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cWe\u2019re exploring all of our options. Obviously, it\u2019s in the midst of a full demolition, so what does that mean in terms of being able to develop possibly after that or move to a different location to serve,\u201d said Steward.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Residents like Alex Villacres say the church is part of the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cHaving a stalwart and historic piece of this area is, it&#8217;s nice. We have bodegas and you have like churches like that. That&#8217;s the stalwarts of the community. So it\u2019s sweet to have something like that and horrible when it, when it goes,\u201d said Villacres.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">In the meantime, Steward says they\u2019ll continue to have remote services.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cChurch is always the people. And, you know, we are calling on the people to rally around us as you&#8217;ve been doing and continue to support. With your prayers, with your presence, with finances, to help us to be able to rebuild and to continue to serve the community as we&#8217;ve been doing,\u201d said Steward.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">The FDNY says they&#8217;re continuing to investigate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FDNY says they\u2019re investigating the possibility that the fire that tore down South Bushwick Reformed Church was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-296160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}