FDNY Investigators Still Probing Possible Arson in June 19 Fire That Destroyed 173-Year-Old Brooklyn Church

A Landmark Reduced to Ruins

The South Bushwick Reformed Church, a wooden landmark built in 1853, burned on June 19 in a three-alarm fire that took roughly 200 FDNY firefighters and EMS personnel about two and a half hours to put out, according to the FDNY. The church's steeple collapsed during the blaze. Nearly a month later, the FDNY has still not released an official cause.

Fire marshals typically need weeks to sift through debris looking for accelerant residue, electrical failures, or other physical evidence. The New York Post reported that the extensive damage at the South Bushwick site has made that process especially difficult.

The Arson Question

Sources told the New York Post that investigators have not ruled out arson and are looking at a suspicious person of interest who was captured on video leaving the church not long before the fire started. It is not a charge, an arrest, or a finding of fact.

No one has been charged. No arrest has been announced. The FDNY has not confirmed arson as the cause. Everything beyond "video shows someone leaving the building before the fire" is, at this point, alleged and unconfirmed.

A person appearing on surveillance footage near a building before a fire is a lead worth chasing. Arsonists sometimes do exactly that, and fire investigators build cases by tracing exactly this kind of movement. But plenty of innocent explanations exist too: someone leaving a building shortly before an unrelated fire breaks out is not, by itself, evidence of a crime. Investigators appear to know that, which is presumably why they're still combing through the wreckage for physical evidence rather than announcing a suspect.

What's Actually Been Established

The fire happened June 19. It was a three-alarm response. It destroyed most of the wooden structure and collapsed the steeple. The church is under a vacate order from the city's Department of Buildings, meaning nobody can legally use the building until it's deemed safe or demolished.

The cause remains unestablished. Whether it was arson, an electrical fault, or something else entirely remains open. Whether the person of interest had anything to do with the fire remains open. The FDNY has offered no timeline for when a cause will be determined.

A Building With History

The South Bushwick Reformed Church wasn't just old—it was landmarked, and it had drawn attention from preservation groups including the National Fund for Sacred Places, which tracks historic houses of worship nationwide specifically because buildings like this one are irreplaceable once lost. A 173-year-old wooden church built in 1853 can't simply be rebuilt to spec; whatever comes next for the site, whether restoration or demolition, will be shaped by the DOB's vacate order and whatever the fire marshals eventually conclude.

The unresolved question that matters most here isn't who the person of interest is. It's whether investigators can actually determine, from a heavily damaged and debris-choked scene, whether this was arson at all. If they can't nail down physical evidence of accelerants or ignition points, the case may stall regardless of who was on that video. New York City has seen historic structures lost to fire before where cause was never conclusively determined. The Bushwick church could join that list, or it could become the state's next arson prosecution. As of now, neither outcome has been decided, and the FDNY has not said when it will be.