Large fire at South Bend church causes partial roof collapse

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A large fire is under investigation at a church on South Bend's Southeast side.

The fire happened at Maranatha Fellowship Ministries, which has been active for more than 15 years.

The South Bend Fire Department remained on scene until around 2:30 in the afternoon, and the fire was determined under control around 8 a.m.

The call for the blaze came in around 5 a.m., and South Bend fire crews quickly jumped into action.

The church's co-owner and pastor told ABC 57 how she found out about the fire.

"I got a text this morning, about are you guys ok, I said what do you mean, and one of our clients said your building is on fire, and I immediately jumped on Google and that's when I saw the flames and saw the building on fire," said Dr. Cathy Nilli, pastor and co-owner of Maranatha Fellowship Ministries.

Crews did attempt to enter the church upon arrival, but the building conditions resulted in an early exit, with part of the roof eventually collapsing.

"The bulk of the fire is knocked down, we'll probably be on scene for a couple hours still, just hitting hot spots. The roof is compromised, it's collapsed so it's unsafe for us to go inside right now until we can really just make sure the fire's out, make sure there's no other concerns there, and then we'll assess how we're going to proceed from there," said Derek Erquhart, South Bend fire assistant chief.

Drones have been key for those working this scene; the thermal imaging has shown fire fighters where the remaining active hot spots are.

"All we could see was smoke, it was just everywhere, and so I was just like damn, this is pretty bad, but it wasn't until after I got my kids up and ready, we actually came out and saw them putting out the fire, we actually saw how much of a damage there was, we could see that the roof was partially collapsed," said Crystal Garrod, lives nearby the church.

"It really hurt me because I was thinking about the members who congregate here and when they see this over the phone, it's like their home, so it hurt," said Rita Young, lives across the street from the church.