Fayette Co. Church Parsonage Damaged By Fire
ISABELLA (KDKA) -- A church parsonage was completely destroyed and the fire marshal believes it was done on purpose.
The smoldering pile of rubble is all that's left of the Isabella Wesleyan Methodist Church parsonage.
Around 2:20 a.m. Friday, Gregory Angelo saw the flames flickering from his bedroom window.
"I went to call 9-1-1 and that's when fire whistle went off and that house was completely on fire," Angelo said.
Angelo shot a video from his home, just a few streets away -- the flames lighting the night sky over the small Fayette County town.
By the time firefighters arrived the roof had already collapsed.
The fire burned until there was nothing left.
"It just looked like somebody poured gasoline all over it and everything went up, just like that, "Angelo said. "Like you would throw a cardboard box and douse it with lighter fluid—everything, it was engulfed. It wasn't like a flame coming out of a window here and a window there, it was fully."
The flames were so intense that they melted the siding on a home across the street, but the church itself was spared.
The parsonage was unoccupied at the time of the blaze, but a minister from Ohio would stay there on weekends when he came to the church to preach.
"The first thing that went through in my mind was there goes another one, here in Isabella," Angelo said.
Earlier this year, a vacant house just one street away from Angelo's home also burned to the ground.
Flames were so intense, they caught a neighboring house on fire while two elderly women were inside.
Angelo says he and his neighbors live in constant fear that their house could be next.
"It's very scary because people need money and they'll do anything. They'll come in and rob houses and then to cover their tracks, they just burn the places down," Angelo said.
Angelo is hoping that local police will call in the ATF for help, before any more homes are burned.
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