arson

The blaze at Victory Baptist Church broke out shortly before 2:30 a.m. and quickly grew to major emergency status, said Nicholas Prange, a spokesperson with the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Three people have been arrested in connection with a fire that destroyed a historic church in West Virginia, state police said.

Police are investigating a fire at an anti-abortion center in a Buffalo suburb early Tuesday as a likely arson — one the center’s operators suspect is the work of women’s rights extremists.

Kimorah Parker has been arrested in connection with two fires that were set at a church and a synagogue in New Britain, Conn. the evening of Friday, March 11. Former friends of Parker's have suggested her actions were related to her pursuit of witchcraft and demonic rituals.

A Maine man charged with setting fire to the building of a predominantly Black church in Massachusetts was driven by racial animus, according to court documents.

Several congregations throughout the U.S. have recently been targeted by vandals, some of whom defaced churches with satanic graffiti. Authorities are also investigating arson as the cause of fire that burned down a church in Florida. 

St. Monica Church’s building was burned on Jan. 20 in Otamba village, in the Nyaraibari Chache area of Kisii County. Over the next few days, four more churches were reduced to ruins.

Holden Matthews pleaded guilty to three counts of arson of a religious building. Matthews was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay the churches $2.6 million.