East Durham neighborhood sees slew of abandoned building fires with old church destroyed, 6 arsons last July

DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — A huge fire destroyed an abandoned church in East Durham and investigators are trying to figure out how it started.

The blaze broke out on the corner of North Holman Avenue and East Main Street around 8 a.m. on Thursday. This isn’t the first time this neighborhood has seen a fire like this in an abandoned building.

The church, near downtown, is completely reduced to rubble as crews spent the day tearing it all down. There’s no word on the cause yet, but neighbors around there said they’ve witnessed plenty of suspicious fires in recent months.

Flames shot into the sky, sending firefighters rushing to the scene of this massive fire. Smoke was seen from miles away. And now, a charred pile of bricks is all that’s left. That old church was abandoned for years.

Living right across the street, Fred Cannady has watched three buildings burn down on his block in the last year. At least one of them was ruled as arson.

“The whole thing in the same type of way, the whole thing in one whole year,” Cannady said. “That was a wild fire. It was really wild. … [It was] hot because of the heat. The heat from the fire was really hot.”

Within the first couple weeks of July last year, there were six abandoned house fires within a half mile of the church. All of them were ruled arson in 2023.

“It was a huge fire, very unsafe,” Durham Rescue Mission CEO Rob Tart said about Thursday’s incident. “Thankfully, we don’t believe anyone was in there. It was unoccupied. We just recently acquired it. We had intentions of developing the property.”

There’s no word on what caused this fire, but DFD says there are a number of different possibilities.

“It’s a variety of sources,” Durham Fire Deputy Chief Chris Iannuzzi said. “Sometimes, it is an arson. And we have no idea what this one this morning was or any indication that it could be related in any way. So it could be that. It could be accidental.”

Right now, the fire remains under investigation as neighbors witness yet another building burning to the ground.

“Right now, everything burned down and needs to be rebuilt,” Cannady said. “Burned down and rebuilt. That’s all.”

A spokesperson with the Durham Fire Department said he doesn’t believe those arsons from last July were ever solved. And now, we’re waiting to hear the cause of the latest blaze.

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