A fire broke out overnight in an electronics room at Buena Vista Baptist Church.
The fire was contained to one floor on the second story of the church's educational wing.
Pastor Blake Reese said the fire was definitely electrical but firefighters have not determined what caused it. He said he had just sat down at his desk around 9:30 when he heard about the fire.
"This morning, we had some ladies come in to clean up and get things ready for Sunday, and they said, 'Smells like smoke in here.' That's when we saw black soot all over everything," Reese said.
Reese said he called 911. It's unclear if the church's fire alarm went off.
Blake said firefighters told him that the church will likely have to find a new place to hold services for several weeks while the insurance company assesses the damage. Reese said church officials will announce where services will be held this weekend as soon as they can.
Reese said there is a lot of smoke damage, but it's lucky that the fire didn't spread any further.
"We're blessed to have a cinderblock building," Reese said.
Emergency vehicles were lined up on Chestnut Avenue Thursday morning as firefighters cleared the building and strung up caution tape. The doors were opened to help air the building out. Buena Vista Fire Chief John Rowsey said the air quality inside the building was not safe enough for people to go inside. No one was in the building when the fire broke out and no one was injured.
Blake said people were at the building Wednesday night and everything was fine, so the fire must have happened some time later in the evening.
Firefighters are working to determine the cause of the blaze.
