ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — Fires apparently set by an arsonist on Christmas Eve and in the pre-dawn hours of Christmas Day caused significant damage to a Baptist community ministry in Arlington, Texas.
But by the next day, Mission Arlington was operating again, moving some services housed in the fire-damaged building to other facilities and setting up clothes distribution under a tent in a parking lot.
Investigators ruled out accidental causes. Although no accelerants were used, the fires apparently were set intentionally. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported investigators questioned a “person of interest” but no charges have been filed.
Although some news sources reported the ministry sustained $30,000 in damages, Mission Arlington Executive Director Tillie Burgin said, “I don't know where they got that. I can't imagine that would even begin to cover it.”
Burgin founded the multifaceted ministry in 1986 as an outgrowth of First Baptist Church in Arlington, a suburb halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth. Mission Arlington now provides ministry to 600,000 people each year and sponsors Bible studies at 254 sites that involve 4,000 people each week.
Both fires occurred in Mission Arlington's “first house,” the northernmost unit in a long, two-story facility that houses a clothes closet and a child-care facility and that served as the staging area for Christmas donations.
Mission Arlington staff members discovered the first fire mid-afternoon Dec. 24. “It was in a closet where we keep coats and blankets,” Burgin said. “It was put out quickly and caused minimal damage. … We were just praising God it was so contained.”
Sometime after 2 a.m. on Christmas, Burgin received a phone call reporting a second fire in the same facility. It caused significantly more damage.
“The whole inside of the building will have to be redone,” she reported. Even so, she expressed thanks that the building was unoccupied, the fire didn't spread to adjoining units and the inventory of Christmas toys already had been distributed.
“We had just given 20,000 people toys. There were still some left over, but not much,” she said. “It could have been so much worse. It could have spread to the second, third and fourth houses.”
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