Police: Car fire destroys West Babylon strip mall owned by church

Investigators said it happened on Edison Avenue around 10 p.m.

Carmen Grant and Roberto Torres

Aug 11, 2024, 9:37 PM

Updated 29 days ago

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A car fire in West Babylon destroyed a strip mall owned by a church on Saturday night.
Investigators said it happened on Edison Avenue around 10 p.m.
Congregants of Templo Mahanan Iglesia Evangelical Apostoles Yprofetas were forced from the building back in 2010 due to fire and had been renting space at another location ever since. They say plans were in place to return to the Edison Avenue building – but not anymore.
On what was the church's 30th anniversary on Sunday, congregants said they will continue to remain faithful that they can return home one day.
"It's definitely an unfortunate event. There's not much we can do since we were not able to control it. It's a bad sequence of events but we are hoping that some good comes from this and that we are able to return to our house of worship," said church youth leader Edwin Ruiz.
There were no injuries reported. Fire officials said it took six departments about half-hour to knock out the flames.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the fire.