COTTON PLANT, Ark. – The city of Cotton Plant is mourning the loss of a historic Methodist church after three fires broke out in one night. 

According to the volunteer Cotton Plant Fire Department, a call came in Sunday night just after 11:00 pm for an abandoned building off Vine Street on fire. When crews arrived on scene, they also found smoke coming out of the 112-year-old United Methodist Church standing just feet away. One bystander said it looked as though the smoke and flames were coming from inside a room, but a second plume quickly broke out on the roof and the building became engulfed.

While the fire department was responding to the two fires, a third fire broke out around the corner of Main, another abandoned building that was less than a quarter-mile from the first two scenes.

Cotton Plant Fire was assisted by other fire departments including McCrory, Brinkley, and Hunter fire. The investigation is being conducted by Arkansas State Police, the Woodruff County Sheriff’s Office, and the ATF as well as state fire marshals as they search to find a cause. No further information was given, although a first responder at the scene said it seemed suspicious. He also added that no one was injured.

Two days after the fires, congregants and supporters of the United Methodist Church met at the ruins to hold a prayer service. Pastor Melanie Tubbs spoke, as well as the Methodist district superintendent and the Arkansas bishop.

Tubbs recalled arriving Sunday night to find the church on fire.

“My first reaction was just overwhelming grief,” she said. “We had no idea Sunday morning that that would be the last worship service we would ever have in that building.”

Community member and city librarian Nikita Thomas also stopped by to pray and see the church.

“It was like a historic landmark,” Thomas said. “My first initial thought was who would burn a church? It saddens me to see that somebody would do this.”

Tubbs says the church’s fellowship hall survived the fire and services will move in there for the time being. She has already been gifted audio and broadcast equipment, chairs and various other necessities by other churches, and Bishop Gary Mueller gave a check for $5,000 to her parish at the prayer service.

She adds that even though the town lost a significant and meaningful building, the congregation survives and is stronger now than ever before.

“The building may be in ashes,” Tubbs declared, “but we are not.”