(CNN) -- Another Baptist church in Alabama was heavily damaged by fire Saturday night, becoming the 10th house of worship burned in recent weeks, police said.
Firefighters from several cities helped fight the blaze Saturday evening in Beaverton, a town of 200 people about 90 miles northwest of Birmingham.
A Lamar County Sheriff's Department dispatcher said police are still trying to determine what caused the fire at the Beaverton Freewill Baptist Church in northwest Alabama.
The Beaverton church is the fifth with a predominantly white congregation to burn in the recent string of fires. Five churches with predominantly black congregations have also been set ablaze in the past week in central and western Alabama. Nobody has been injured in any of the fires.
The Beaverton fire collapsed the back wall of the building, said Terri Johnson, who lives in nearby Sulligent and was at the scene soon after the fire began about 4:30 p.m.
"When we got there, it obviously was in the beginning stages of the fire," Johnson said. "It was coming from the middle of the church. Then the fire began to rage. Then it engulfed the whole church."
Johnson said she and her sister were passing through Beaverton when a sheriff's car sped by, sirens blaring. They followed the car out of curiosity, Johnson said.
"It was burned to the point where it was barely standing," she said.
A video of the church showed one wall with melted vinyl siding.
Investigators have been trying to determine the causes and whether the rural church fires are linked.
Investigators have said arson was the cause of seven fires. Arson also is suspected in the other two.
Eric Kehn, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said ATF agents were at the scene of the Beaverton fire, but they had not yet determined how it started or whether it was related to the other church fires.
More than 100 ATF personnel, including special agents and forensic experts, are investigating the fires. A criminal and geographical profiler also has been called in.
The ATF has said witnesses have reported seeing a dark-colored SUV near some of the fires. But it is not clear if the vehicle is linked to the blazes.
I don't have alot of words for this...this is the kind of thing when someone's family member dies...and I don't know what to say because anything I would say feels trite.
Well someone certainly is very organized. This is messed up, I wonder what is driving this person (or group) to burn churches. At least we could easily understand black churches burning down, they were idiot racists, but what of this person, what is their motive? I'm wondering if this is some sort of vendetta, they're an enemy of one church, but they figure they'd burn others down because this will throw the authorities off.
Hope the guy is caught, yep, I assume it's a male.
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
- Bill Cosby
The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.
- Gordon Parks
I just do not understand why anyone would want to burn down a church. It is sad and pathetic. People go to church for solace and to worship. I hope that they catch these arsonists and give them hell.
Yes it should be very interesting to learn the motive of the arsonists. I’m guessing that they will be caught shortly. Racism can certainly be a motive, but I would not conclude the motive to be racism just because of the race of the church members. There are an unusually wide variety of motives besides racism that can apply to church arson.
Oh no, I'm not even considering this to be about racism, I'm saying these burnings were unique because they didn't target black churches alone, something in the past decade. It's the reason why there is speculation about the motive.
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
- Bill Cosby
The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.
- Gordon Parks
no one was killed or injured, so this could still possibly fall under the category "good-humored prank" (admittedly, a bit over the top though)
for some odd reason, while the word "Ganya" was still just a thought-dropping in my head, I thought it'd only be four letters. But apparently it's five. yep.
I only mention the motive because there is a certain expectation or profile that develops around the perpetrator in these high profile crime sprees. Just the headline, “Southern Churches Burning” is freighted with the connotation of a hate crime. However, this particular episode confounds that conclusion because of the diversity of the victims. Nevertheless the implication of that motive hangs over this news, if not expressed as racism, then probably as religious intolerance. It could turn out to be quite a surprise if it is something right out of left field. I suppose that there could be more than one perpetrator acting as copycats.
EUCLID said this in post #13 : I only mention the motive because there is a certain expectation or profile that develops around the perpetrator in these high profile crime sprees. Just the headline, “Southern Churches Burning” is freighted with the connotation of a hate crime. However, this particular episode confounds that conclusion because of the diversity of the victims. Nevertheless the implication of that motive hangs over this news, if not expressed as racism, then probably as religious intolerance. It could turn out to be quite a surprise if it is something right out of left field. I suppose that there could be more than one perpetrator acting as copycats.
Well from the first four churches burning it was obvious it wasn't a hate crime. I wouldn't chalk up to religious intolerance though, I don't think there's any indication of that at the moment, but hey you never know.
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
- Bill Cosby
The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.
- Gordon Parks
02-12-2006 07:12 PM
Yes, yes we are. 
