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Alabama church destroyed by suspicious blaze
![]() Firefighters battle a church blaze about 25 miles north of Birmingham, Alabama. RELATEDYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- An Alabama church was destroyed early Saturday in a fire that authorities are calling suspicious. No one was injured in the blaze at the Faith Church of the Nazarene in Hayden. Fire investigators on Sunday will continue to examine the scene just north of Birmingham, Alabama. "We just lost things, and we can get most of those back," the Rev. Phillip Sessions told The Birmingham News. "It will present some difficulty keeping our members together until we rebuild, but I think we will grow stronger." Ragan Ingram, state assistant insurance commissioner, told CNN state fire marshals were notified of the fire about 3:30 a.m. Saturday. State and federal investigators believe they have isolated the area where the blaze began, he said. The fire occurred in Blount County about 25 miles north of Birmingham near Interstate 65. Earlier this month, three Birmingham college students were arrested in connection with nine other church fires in February. Ben Moseley and Russell DeBusk, both 19, and Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20, face state and federal charges. All nine fires occurred in rural counties southwest of Birmingham -- five in Bibb County on February 3 and four in Greene, Sumter and Pickens counties on February 7. The youths remain in police custody. In court documents, they described the church fires as a joke that "got out of hand." No charges have been brought in connection with a 10th fire on February 11 at a mostly white Lamar County church. Ingram said Saturday he did not know whether Faith Church of the Nazarene's congregation was predominantly white or black.
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