Investigators Seek Motives for Fire at Fullerton Church; Altar Area Is Key

As teams of local, state and federal investigators sifted through the debris of a Fullerton church gutted by fire last week, authorities interviewed people Monday to try to find suspects and a motive for the blaze.

Investigators said the blaze at St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church on Thursday was intentionally set.

“The fire was of an incendiary nature,” said Virginia O’Brien, who heads the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ Los Angeles Field Division. “It was deliberately set.”

The National Church Arson Task Force is investigating the incident with personnel from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the FBI; federal prosecutors; and state and local authorities, O’Brien said.

Prompted by a series of arsons at churches in the southeastern United States, federal authorities in the late 1990s made investigating church fires a priority.

Two dozen ATF agents worked Monday at the scene of the fire, which caused about $1.3 million in damage to the 42-year-old church and its contents. An equal number of investigators were on hand from the Fullerton Fire and Police departments, the Orange County Fire Authority and Laguna Beach Fire Department, which are assisting.

O’Brien would not say where the fire started or give any details about the people being interviewed. “It’s critical that we continue to keep the information privy to the investigators only,” she said.

Authorities have ruled out explosives as the cause of the blaze and are focusing on the area of the altar, where the damage was most intense.

Despite the incident, reports of arson at houses of worship nationwide are declining. Officials from the task force attribute that to well-publicized arrests, continued vigilance and prevention efforts.

The national task force’s arrest rate is 35%, more than twice the national average for arson cases, according to a recent report, and 287 defendants have been convicted in connection with 206 arsons or church bombings between January 1995 and October 1999.

In July, a Yorktown, Ind., man pleaded guilty in federal court in Indianapolis to setting 26 church fires across the nation during a five-year spree, including one in 1995 that destroyed the Sunday school building of South Shore American Baptist Church in Dana Point.

Jay Scott Ballinger, 38, also pleaded guilty to setting fires at churches in Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee. Msgr. John Urell, vicar general for the Diocese of Orange, said Monday he had not yet spoken with officials about news that the Fullerton fire was intentionally set but will do so this week.

He said church officials, including Bishop Tod D. Brown, will meet with insurance representatives to discuss “dealing with the sensibilities of the people of the parish.”

The 42-year-old church on South Pine Drive was insured, officials said, but the congregation of more than 2,000 families is devastated.

“It’s a terrible thing,” Urell said.

Investigators will have to determine the extent of structural damage before church officials can decide whether to rebuild the church or repair it, he said.