Arlington Church Set for Demolition Catches Fire

ARLNGTON, VA — An Arlington church that is slated for demolition to make way for an affordable housing project caught fire on Monday evening.

Fire units responded to Arlington Presbyterian Church at 3507 Columbia Pike to a report of a fire, Arlington Fire's official Twitter account tweeted at 5:44 p.m. A little more than an hour later, authorities reported that the fire was out and units remained on the scene to ventilate smoke out of the building. No injuries were reported.

The Arlington County Board announced in December 2015 that it had approved a plan to redevelop the church site into an affordable housing apartment complex by the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH).

“We at Arlington Presbyterian Church are grateful for both the County’s approval and APAH’s commitment to develop affordable housing on our church site at Gilliam Place,” Susan Etherton, Church Elder and Affordable Housing Team Lead, said in the statement. “We have worked on this redevelopment project for many years and we are thrilled to be one step closer to realizing our vision of using our assets as a resource for the community.”

The church had decided to sell the building, which is about a century old, due to a decline in its membership and congregation in recent years, making it difficult to afford maintenance of the aging building. The church agreed to sell the site to APAH in January 2015.

There is not yet any word on how much damage the fire caused or whether it would affect future plans for the property.

Image via Arlington Fire