Nov. 01--ASHFORD -- Fire destroyed the Church of Faith, Hope and Charity, located in the former First Baptist Church building in the downtown area on Friday afternoon.
The building, at the intersection of Third Avenue and Church Street, was gutted by flames as firefighters from Ashford and other departments battled to keep the blaze from damaging neighboring structures.
Wendy Jones was in her studio, W. Jones Photography, across Church Street from the building when she noticed the fire about 1:30 p.m.
"I looked out my window and saw smoke," Jones said. "At that point you could already see flames coming out the rafters at the very top."
She said her client said the flames took about a minute and a half to travel from the back part of the building to about the middle part, and took about 30 seconds to go from there to the steeple.
The steeple collapsed into the building. The cause of the fire had not been determined as of Friday afternoon.
Todd Thorpe, lead pastor at Watermark Church, said First Baptist Church moved from the building in 2005 when it opened a new location on Elmer Road near U.S. 84. The name changed to Watermark around 2010.
The church was founded in 1893 but the current building was built later. The building was sold to Fred Trawick around 2005.
"His goal was to start this church," Thorpe said.
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