{"id":296774,"date":"2026-07-15T17:20:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/296774\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T17:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:20:35","slug":"historic-brooklyn-church-destroyed-in-intentional-fire-fdny-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/296774\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Brooklyn church destroyed in intentional fire, FDNY confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"

A three-alarm fire that destroyed the historic South Bushwick Reformed Church on June 19 was intentionally set, according to the FDNY, which announced Monday that the blaze is being investigated as arson.<\/p>\n

The church, built in 1863 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, had served the Bushwick community for generations as a place of worship, a food pantry and a gathering space.<\/p>\n

Pastor James E. Steward II said the determination has brought another wave of grief to the congregation, which is still mourning the loss of the church, CBS News<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more than just a building. It\u2019s lives and generations of lives that have been touched,\u201d Steward said. \u201cNow we understand it is intentional, which brings another layer of grief to myself, as well as the congregation and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steward said he has no idea why anyone would target the church. \u201cWe have no known enemies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The news has also shaken community members who say the church was an important neighborhood landmark. Marcel Sanabria said his aunt was married there, while neighbor Helena Munoz called the arson determination \u201cshocking and upsetting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steward said the church is a total loss and will need to be demolished and rebuilt. Although there is no timeline for reconstruction, he said the congregation is committed to restoring the historic church as the investigation continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A three-alarm fire that destroyed the historic South Bushwick Reformed Church on June 19 was intentionally set, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-296774","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\/296774","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=296774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}