South Carolina black church destroyed by fire, cause unknown

UPDATEFire has gutted the Mt. Zion AME Church on Highway 375 in Greeleyville. Williamsburg, Kingstree, Clarendon, Berkeley, and South Lynches Fire Departments are fighting the fire. Williamsburg County Sheriffs Office is one site and SLED are en route. No injuries to report. Law enforcement will provide a press release. A lightening storm passed through the area this afternoon. Senator Ronnie Sabb arrived as the firefighters were putting out the blaze. He said it is just an unfortunate occurrence and all we know at this point. "We will find out what the cause is. We know that we had a very sharp lightening storm earlier tonight so it very well could be that."

Posted by The News - Kingstree on Tuesday, June 30, 2015
A historic South Carolina black church was gutted by a fire Tuesday night, just hours after the NAACP warned pastors nationwide to be vigilant following a series of blazes at Southern black churches.

Flames engulfed the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville, about 60 north of Charleston, as it burned for nearly three hours.

"It's gone," State Rep. Cezar McKnight (D-Kingstree) told the Post and Courier."They don't know the cause yet, but I am hoping for the best."



CLAREDON COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT VIA TWITTER
The Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville, S.C., goes up in flames Tuesday night.

VEASEY CONWAY/AP
Smoke rises from Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church.

VEASEY CONWAY/AP
Charred remains inside the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church are illuminated om Wednesday morning.

VEASEY CONWAY/AP
Members of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division examine the remains of the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church early Wednesday.

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The church dates back to 1906 and was reopened in 1996 after being burned by the KKK.

Mount Zion AME is now the seventh black church in the South to be burned in the past two weeks. It was previously burned to the ground almost exactly 20 years ago by the Ku Klux Klan.

Tuesday's fire started around 8:30 p.m. and was under control by 11, officials said. Photos showed the church completely consumed by flames, with its towering white spire vanished in the embers.

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Rev. Terrence Mackey stands with President Bill Clinton in 1996, when the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church was dedicated a year after the Ku Klux Klan burned it down.
FBI and ATF officials were on the scene.

Authorities have not speculated on any cause for the fire, but the chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division told the Post and Courier a storm rolled through the area Tuesday and the fire could have come from a lightning strike.

RELATED: STRING OF APPARENT ARSON FIRES PLAGUE BLACK CHURCHES IN CAROLINAS, GEORGIA AND TENNESSEE

No injuries were reported and it’s unknown if anyone was inside when the fire sparked.

Mount Zion AME, which opened in 1906, was burned by two KKK members in June 1995, the day before the same men torched the Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville, S.C.

President Bill Clinton spoke at Mount Zion's dedication one year later, as it was being rebuilt.

In his speech, Clinton said: "I ask you today, my fellow Americans, to celebrate the triumph of the rebuilding of this church, to express gratitude for the fact that the huge vast majority of our people of all races deplore what has been done and revere the right of every American to worship God in his or her own way. But I ask you to reaffirm our responsibility to keep working, working together, not to ever let America fall back into those patterns of hatred and division, which can so easily consume any civilized people.