Cause of fire unknown at M.B. church
A fire Friday evening scorched the outside of the Hillsboro M.B. Church but failed to cause any structural damage. No one was injured.
Just after 6 p.m. Friday, the Hillsboro Fire Department was called out to the church, located at the corner of Washington and Grand.
Some bushes on the west side of the building, just outside the church offices, had caught on fire, according to Fire Chief Ben Steketee. The flames reached up and caught the building's overhang.
Firefighters saw the flames reaching into the attic space and extinguished them, but there was still smoke. So to make sure the fire was completely out, fire officials called out the sheriff's department and used its thermal imaging camera to check for more heat.
Without the camera, the firefighters would have been forced to tear out more of the building to search for further flames. Instead, the thermal camera showed no more fire, Steketee said.
Fire never got into the church offices, but there was considerable smoke damage, he said. There were no injuries.
As of Monday, Steketee didn't know how the bushes caught fire. There was one eyewitness, and the chief will interview that person soon, he said. Until then, the cause of the fire is officially under investigation.
