{"id":195103,"date":"2026-05-17T18:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/195103\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T18:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:58:20","slug":"massive-fire-destroys-church-in-wilmington-delaware-nbc10-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/195103\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive fire destroys church in Wilmington, Delaware \u2013 NBC10 Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A two-alarm fire tore through a church in Wilmington, Delaware, leaving most of the historic structure in ruins.<\/p>\n<p>Battalion Chief of the Wilmington Fire Department, Robert Pryor, told NBC10 that the fire broke out around 3 a.m. on Sunday, May 17, 2026, at the Mother African Union Church along North Franklin Street. <\/p>\n<p>Pryor said the fire spread throughout the entire church, shooting flames 20 to 30 feet into the air.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Due to the extensive fire conditions, a defensive attack was ordered and all arriving units were ordered to attack the fire from the exterior. A second alarm was quickly transmitted, bringing all remaining on duty Wilmington firefighters to the scene, along with assistance from several New Castle County departments,&#8221; said Pryor. <\/p>\n<p> It took crews over an hour to get the fire under control. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Wilmington-Church-Fire-1-.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\" \"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tWilmington Fire Department\u00a0Wilmington Fire Department\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Wilmington-Church-Fire-2-.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\" \"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tWilmington Fire Department\u00a0Wilmington Fire Department\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While firefighters battled the flames, they also evacuated the surrounding homes due to falling embers, according to Pryor. Those residents have since returned to their homes. <\/p>\n<p>Residents in the area told NBC10 that they smelled the fire before they saw it. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I looked up the street and the flames were higher than that steeple,&#8221; said neighbor Kathleen Brawders. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Wilmington-Church-Fire-3.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\" \"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tWilmington Fire Department\u00a0Wilmington Fire Department\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The building is now structurally unstable, and no one is allowed inside, Pryor shared. <\/p>\n<p>Pryor said two firefighters received minor injuries, no one else was injured. The cause of the fire is now under investigation.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Wilmington-Church-Fire-Aftermath.png\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\" \"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A two-alarm fire tore through a church in Wilmington, Delaware, leaving most of the historic structure in ruins.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[916,69,71,70,9205],"class_list":["post-195103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-delaware","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-wilmington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}