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WHYY
By
Aaron MoselleMay 13, 2021 1:10 pm
Neighbors in Philadelphia’s Tacony neighborhood watch workers at St. Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church the morning after a fire started on Sunday, May 9, 2021. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
Days after a fire gutted St. Leo’s Roman Catholic Church in Northeast Philadelphia, federal authorities say the blaze was intentionally set. And they’re asking for the public’s help catching the person or persons responsible.
“They declared it definitively incendiary,” said Robert J. Cucinotta, a spokesperson with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives on Thursday. “It’s a very active investigation.”
Cucinotta declined to say how the fire was started.
3 weeks ago
Monday morning, investigators from the city’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Task Force were on the scene trying to determine the origin and cause of fire as well as whether anything at all will be able to be salvaged. By the afternoon, officials said they had to do a partial demolition and take down the steeple for safety concerns.
As far as the time capsule goes, they are working with St. Leo’s former church officials to locate and salvage the momentos. But tracking them down will not be easy. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia closed the church in 2013, when it merged 24 parishes into 10 and left a number of historic neighborhood anchors vacant. St. Leo’s merged with Our Lady of Consolation Parish. Still, it was common for neighbors to worship there and use the space for functions until January 2019 when the Archdiocese closed it permanently.
Crews demolish remains of church destroyed by fire in Tacony WPVI
Replay Video
A historic church in Philadelphia s Tacony section went up in flames on Sunday afternoon.
The fire broke out around 5:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church near Unruh Ave and Keystone Street.
Heavy smoke billowed into the sky as flames tore through the vacant property that was built in 1884.
Suzanne McErlain Vrana captured video of the flames shooting through the church s roof as she was traveling south on I-95.
The blaze reached two alarms before it was brought under control just after 7 p.m.