Fire investigators at the scene of the devastating fire at downtown’s First United Methodist Church are looking into the possibility that a vagrant could have been involved in the three-alarm blaze.
It’s one of several leads being investigated at this time, but the church was a favorite of some of downtown’s homeless, who slept in its outside stairwells and in the alley north of it. Over the years, the church had dealt with break-ins that were thought to originate from the people sleeping around the church, and investigators are evaluating the possibility that somebody in the building looking for food or cash may have been involved in starting the fire.
