Historic Middle Collegiate Church destroyed in fire
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire that spread from the building next to Middle Collegiate Church on December 5. (AP Photo / Yuki Iwamura)
An early morning fire in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood has destroyed the 128-year-old building of Middle Collegiate Church, one of the oldest congregations in the city.
Nearly 200 firefighters worked to put out the fire in a slow drizzling rain, according to reports from the Gothamist. No one was killed in the fire.
The six-alarm fire began on the first floor of a nearby five-story vacant apartment building around 5 a.m. before igniting the church, New York City Fire Department officials told local ABC news reporters. The church’s roof was in flames by 6 a.m.
