An early morning fire devastated a Los Angeles community and destroyed a church hours before a Christmas toy drive event, according to Victory Outreach Pomona.
Firefighters arrived at the church just before 2:30 a.m. Saturday and performed an aggressive interior attack when they arrived, but after about 20 minutes the roof began to collapse, and the fire expanded, so firefighters had to go into a defensive mode, according to a post on X, formerly Twitter, from the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
“As some of you might have heard, this morning our church building caught on fire and it was redeemed a total loss. We will be postponing our service this morning and our `Believe’ play & toy giveaway until further notice,” the church posted on Facebook. “Please join us in prayer for our pastors and our church.
According to the fire department, the entire fire was extinguished by 6:13 a.m.
Despite the church being a total loss, the toy giveaway event was rescheduled for Sunday night.
“It was tragic to lose our church, but we know what’s left standing is the church and all of us came together, including our pastors and said “We’re going to continue on with the event”, so you are invited,” the church posted in a video on Facebook.
The church added that firefighters who helped put out the fire would be at the event handing out toys as well.
“We are continuing to march forward and continuing to be the light here in the city of Pomona and the world. Amen and God Bless,” the church posted.
No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire remains under investigation, according to fire officials.