Abandoned church to be demolished after early-morning blaze

PITTSBURGH — An abandoned church in Pittsburgh’s Crawford-Roberts neighborhood will be demolished after an intense fire engulfed it early Tuesday morning, officials said.

PHOTOS: Intense fire engulfs abandoned Pittsburgh church

The fire, which broke out about 3 a.m. at the old Ebenezer Baptist Church at the corner of Miller and Colwell streets, could be seen from several blocks away.

“It was horrible. Plumes of smoke and flames. I didn’t want to get any closer. I stood in the door for a minute, and that was it,” neighbor Barbara Stevens said.

Neighbors say the building hasn't been used in years, and that it was most recently home to a bottling company.

“That was Mallinger’s. It was a bottling company. It had a lot of cardboard and stuff in it that they left,” neighbor Steven Price said.

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Demolition of the building -- now largely caved-in walls and fallen bricks -- is planned for sometime Tuesday.

According to county tax real estate records, the city of Pittsburgh bought the building in 2012 for $7,583. Neighbors don't know what the city has in store for the old property, but they know what they would like to see.

“There is talk of new housing. I hope to see affordable housing … I think a lot of us in the neighborhood are concerned about gentrification,” Rust said.

“Put people in it that are used to living here, that know the neighborhood, and can bring the neighborhood back," Price said.

Officials said a collapse as the fire burned through the church building helped firefighters.

“What helped us a lot was that the fire was so heavily involved that the roof on the main sanctuary collapsed, which actually was a good thing. It gave us good access to put water on the fire,” Deputy Chief Michael Mullen said.