ATLANTA — Officials say one person staying in an abandoned church is unaccounted for after the building caught fire early Monday morning.
Atlanta fire officials say they responded to Hardee Street and Mayson Avenue just before 3 a.m.
Neighbors told Channel 2’s Steve Gehlbach that homeless people sometimes stay in the vacant building.
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Crews say the building was too unsafe to go inside and do a search.
“If someone was in there, it’s not a survivable situation. But we’re always going to make sure and be respectful of that to make sure we’ve investigated it thoroughly,” Battalion Chief Matt Driver said.
The two-story church appears to have suffered major damage, including losing the vast majority of its roof.
Neighbors say it used to be New St. John Baptist Church, but closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and has sat empty since.
“I was just shocked,” neighbor Carol Holt said.
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The plan is to build townhomes on the property, and demolition equipment was already on site when the fire did the job for them.
“I was like, ‘They’re finally demolishing it,’” neighbor Teddy Hoff said. “[I] knew it was going to happen eventually, wasn’t going to stay there forever.”
But Holt says it is bittersweet to see it go out in this way.
“This is the foundation of this neighborhood, this area. This is memories right here, and to see it like this, it’s sad,” she said.
Once walls that are at risk of collapsing are demolished, crews say they will search for the unaccounted for person.
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