Crews respond to large fire at Ky. church

SOMERSET, Ky. (WKYT) - Crews responded to a large fire at a Somerset church.

Multiple fire departments were called to Cornerstone Baptist Church Thursday afternoon.

The church is on Clifty Street, near Highway 80 on the east side of the city.

Lisa Hall has been going to Cornerstone Baptist Church for several years. In fact, she was inside the church Wednesday evening.

”We have a good time on Wednesday nights and stuff and get together for bible study and stuff like that, and we have a meal before our service,” Hall said. “You just don’t think of stuff like this until it hits home. Then you have to stand and watch your building be burned.”

Hall was one of the first ones to notice the fire and called 911. She immediately turned to her faith.

“We’ll rely on our faith to get through this. With God’s help, we will. We’ll get through it. But it’s very hard,” Hall said.

The heaviest damage to the church is where there were meeting rooms for bible study and other spaces for students.

The sanctuary is on the other side of where the roof collapsed through two floors, but Lisa is worried the smoke and water damage may be just as extensive.

But Hall knows it’s not a building that makes a church. It’s the people.

“We’re all just weeping together. We know that God is going to open another door for us,” Hall said. “We don’t know where or how, but we know He is going to. Because God is good, even in the bad times.”

Crews were still on scene six hours after the fire was reported.

The pastor said there’s usually a large group of students at the church on Thursday afternoons. Thankfully, they were not there yet before the fire started.

We do not know yet how the fire started.

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