Investigators say someone deliberately set fire to the New Life Outreach Ministries building in South Memphis on Wednesday night, and the blaze has now been officially ruled an arson. Fire crews pulled up just before 9:30 p.m. and were able to knock down the flames, but the church was left with an estimated $6,000 in damage. The front door was later boarded up, and while no one was hurt, the attack has left congregants and nearby residents rattled.
According to WREG, Memphis Fire investigators confirmed the blaze was intentionally set and said they are working to track down whoever is responsible. The department said certain details are being kept under wraps while the investigation is active, and WREG noted it updated its story on Friday as new information came in.
“Honestly, how they can set it on fire? It’s honestly terrible,” neighbor Jacorean Yates told WREG. Other residents on the block described watching firefighters secure the property and board up the front entrance once the flames were out. With the building now a crime scene, the congregation will likely have to find another place to gather while investigators comb through the damage.
WREG also reported a separate arson off N. Watkins Street about a week and a half earlier that caused more than $100,000 in damage, part of what officials have described as a cluster of suspicious fires that has local fire investigators on edge. Authorities have not publicly linked that case to the South Memphis church fire, and they say the incidents remain under investigation.
Historic and recent context
Memphis has been here before, on a larger stage. In the past year, the downtown Clayborn Temple, a church closely tied to the 1968 sanitation strike, was badly damaged by a fire that investigators later ruled intentional, and foundations stepped up with funding pledges to help rebuild, according to AP News. That high-profile blaze, combined with a string of smaller suspicious fires around the city, has led to heightened scrutiny whenever a church or historic property goes up in flames.
What investigators say and next steps
Memphis Fire investigators say their work at New Life Outreach Ministries is far from over and that more details will be released as they are able to share them. For now, the church remains boarded up, and it is unclear when services might resume inside the building. Hoodline recently covered a separate Midtown blaze on a different property; see our earlier report on the fire that rattled a Midtown block.
