The fire which gutted House on the Rock Church in Abuja on Sunday began on the top floor of the N3 billion edifice, according to a witness.
The church building, which is known as `Citadel and Towers’ with a sitting capacity of 10, 000 , went up in flames at about 2pm as the rain was falling.
The witness who identified herself simply as Esther said the fire began after the Sunday service had closed.
She said she was about to leave the Church premises when she noticed fire on the top floor of the building.
According to her, the plastic materials on the top floor of the building burned quickly, and spread to the second floor and onto the pulpit. Half of the building located on Airport Road was destroyed before the firemen were able to tame the fire.
Rev. Kennedy Asigime, a cleric in the church, told NAN that there were no casualties as members of the church had gone home at the time of the event.
“The most unfortunate thing is the fact that we have a fire service that is not properly equipped to help in such situations.
“We have no idea what caused the fire, whether it is an electrical fault or not, nobody knows for now.
“This whole building cost about N3 billion and a very substantial part of the building has been totally destroyed.
“We cannot be sure of what is left standing now, we need to do an integrity test to know if the whole building is going to be knocked down,’’ Asigime said.
