A West Baltimore church undergoing renovations was heavily damaged in a three-alarm fire yesterday morning, and investigators said were they trying to determine whether the construction work was linked to how the blaze started.
A witness, Shaun Capps, 23, said he was driving past Gateway Church of Christ at North Fulton Avenue and Baker Street when he saw smoke pouring out of the two-story building, and then watched as a man ran out of the church with a smoldering charcoal grill.
Capps said the man tossed it into the back of a pickup truck and sped away. "Whatever they were cooking is probably well done by now," he said.
Fire officials said the cause of the fire in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood has not been determined, but they did question Capps and said they would interview construction workers. Plumes of black and white smoke could be seen rising from the church.
The building was once a theater, then was used for various purposes over the years. Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. said workers had been doing demolition work inside the church for the past three days.
gus.sentementes@baltsun.com