Westside Church Hit by Arson Twice in 1 Night

Two blazes deliberately set hours apart damaged a Roman Catholic church on the Westside of Los Angeles, authorities said Saturday.

Firefighters managed to douse the blazes--one set late Friday and the other early Saturday--before they engulfed the entire facility, officials said.

No injuries were reported at St. Mary Magdalen Church, 1241 S. Corning St., near the busy corner of Pico and La Cienega boulevards.

The damage will probably exceed $200,000, said a shaken Father Patrick H. Sullivan, longtime pastor at the church.

“It’s always sad to see something like this, especially in a church,” said Sullivan, a Chicago native who has been at the church since 1977 and awoke in his room in the nearby rectory to see flames shooting from his church.

The same church was hit by an arson fire in 1988. It took months to repair extensive damage to the sacristy, where sacred vessels and vestments are kept. The church has also been the target of repeated vandalism.

A suspected arsonist was seen running from the church early on the morning of July 3 after apparently setting fire to a church wall, Sullivan said. The man fled after the rectory housekeeper heard something and opened a door to see what was wrong, said Sullivan. That fire was put out with only minor damage.

The church published an “Arson Alert” in its last weekly bulletin, to alert parishioners.

The fires at St. Mary Magdalen have been reported to the House of Worship Arson Task Force, a law enforcement group that investigates suspicious fires at religious buildings, said Bob Collis, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Both of this weekend’s blazes broke out in a utility shed attached to the church, Collis said. The first fire, reported at 10:41 p.m. Friday, was extinguished with little damage after a church alarm system alerted the Fire Department.

But the second fire, shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday, did extensive damage to a chapel adjoining the church, the roof and the church electrical system.

Church officials and parishioners wondered about possible connections to other nearby church arsons, including the fire last month that caused an estimated $1.2 million in damage to St. Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church, four miles east down Pico.

In the last four years, suspicious fires have also damaged at least two other nearby churches, Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon-St. Peter Cathedral Maronite Church and St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church.

However, Collis said there was no known link between the church fires.

Early Saturday, shocked parishioners of St. Mary Magdalen gathered to help clean up the 66-year-old Mission-style church, which has a close-knit, ethnically diverse congregation of about 1,600, including whites, blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans. Many parishioners are elderly and live in nearby houses and apartments.

Workers hoped to have the church ready for services today.

Inside, the church reeked of smoke, especially in the heavily damaged chapel area. The carpet was soaked with water from firefighters’ hoses. Some walls were cracked and parts were blackened and charred. A statue of Mary Magdalen comforting a crucified Christ apparently escaped harm, but was covered in plastic to prevent water damage.

“When you walk in here and see this, you feel like your heart is falling in pieces,” said George Schoenstetter, a longtime member who was helping in the cleanup. “It’s hard to believe that people could be so evil as to want to destroy a place of worship. It’s a personal attack.”

Outside, in a neighborhood that is largely Jewish, many people were strolling by on their way to and from Saturday temple services. They were stunned to learn of the attack, which many compared to the recent synagogue arsons in Sacramento.

“We’re horrified,” said Larry Strauss, who was visiting from Dallas. “This shows you that no one is immune from this kind of thing.”