Arson Dogs Sniff Out Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall Fire

[Brother_Bliss]

by denver.cbslocal.com

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AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- Firefighters rushed to put out a fire at the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in Aurora early Friday morning.

A passerby called in the fire at about 2 a.m. When firefighters arrived at the place of worship at Yale and Truckee, they found an active fire burning inside the hall.

“Shortly thereafter Aurora police arrived on scene and said we have heavy smoke coming from multiple points, it was a confirmed fire. Six to 8 minutes later our rigs were arriving on scene and were met with heavy fire conditions,” said Aurora Fire Department Capt. Mike Ackman.

What caused the fire is being investigated. Arson dogs were brought to the scene to sniff for accelerants. It is unclear if they found anything suspicious.

Most of the damage was contained to the inside of the building. It was built in 1982. About 400 members worship there. No one was hurt in the blaze.

“This is our center of worship as well as our center for Kingdom preaching and to not have that available for a period of time is going to affect a lot of brothers and sisters,” said Jehovah’s Witness Larry Goss.

Jehovah’s Witnesses from another Kingdom Hall offered another space for the group to worship.

“Quite frankly most of those Kingdom Halls are packed so it’s going to be difficult to make arrangements to absorb all those publishers into those Kingdom Halls to take care of everyone,” said Goss.

The building houses one large meeting room. It was last used at about 10 p.m. Thursday for a worship service.

“Well, things happen you know and so we’ve been through this before and we’ll get her fixed up and get back going,” said Jehovah’s Witness Rick Cline.

Article Source with Video: denver.cbslocal.com