California church burns in wildfire outbreak
A Southern California wildfire burned the building of the Pasadena Church of Christ — also known as the Kinneloa congregation — Tuesday night.
The church building was among an estimated 100 structures destroyed in the Eaton Canyon area. The Eaton Fire was one of several blazes that erupted in the state.
The fire also killed two people, ABC 7 reported, though none of the Pasadena church’s nine members were personally affected.
Eon Walk, the church’s chief financial officer, was watching the news when she saw a fire had started in the canyon.
“They were saying how fast the fire was spreading, and I told my mom, ‘Oh, Mom, I need to go check on the church,’” Walk told The Christian Chronicle.
Police had blocked off the main road to the building when Walk made the attempt around 8 p.m., but she was able to take another route.
“Something was telling me when I was seeing all the fire, ‘You should turn around,’ but I didn’t,” she said.
When Walk arrived, a bush was on fire by one of the doors. The trash bin was also ablaze, but the building itself was OK.
She decided to run inside to grab the church blueprints and a fire extinguisher — but she didn’t make it.
The Pasadena Church of Christ, Kinneloa.
“One of the windstorms blew, and it was like a fireball, and it blew straight toward me,” Walk said. “All I could do was just back up, and that was it. I had to get out of there.”
Her daughter, Tamyra Simpson, later sent her a video from ABC 7 showing the Pasadena church building engulfed in flames. Firefighters were attempting to extinguish the blaze, but strong winds prevented water from reaching the building, blowing it back toward the firetrucks.
As of Wednesday morning, Walk and other members had not been able to return to the church building to survey the extent of the damage.
She said the building, which was several decades old, was rented out to two other churches, Expressions Church and the Church of God in Christ.
For now, Walk said, church members are just asking for prayers.
“I’ve been a member at Kinneloa for 39 years at this congregation, so this has been devastating,” she said. “I don’t know the process. I know that we definitely want to rebuild. We were supposed to have Bible class tonight.
“So just pray for us. This is hard. My daughter is devastated. This is the only church that she’s ever known. She’s been there since she was 1 year old — she’ll be 40 this year — and she’s just beside herself. This is their history.”
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