Flames and heavy smoke erupted around 4 a.m. at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew, which is nestled between brownstones on Clinton Avenue in Clinton Hill. The Rev. Christopher Ballard, the church’s curate, said the flames had caused “significant damage,” burning the wooden doors of two entrances and charring the foyer. The sanctuary, he said, remained largely unscathed. No one was injured. Though the police said the cause remained under investigation, Father Ballard said the fire had been fueled by a pair of gasoline containers donated to Occupy Sandy volunteers, who had used the church as a staging area for hurricane relief efforts. The gasoline was intended to be used in a generator for a Christmas party in the Rockaways on Sunday night. Father Ballard said the containers had been put outside when the church was cleared of most donated materials to make way for Christmas services. “Somebody decided to take those canisters, dump them on the doors of the church and set the gas on fire,” he said. “We don’t know why someone would do this, what darkness is in someone’s heart.” Father Ballard noted that the church had been rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1914. Councilwoman Letitia James, who represents the area, expressed outrage at what she called a hateful arson. “We will find the sick individual who committed this crime,” she said, standing outside the church. More than 100 firefighters battled the two-alarm blaze early Sunday. By the afternoon, a dozen volunteers, some wearing yellow Occupy Sandy patches, stood outside a taped-off area around the church as fire marshals and detectives from the police arson and explosion squad surveyed the damage for clues to the fire’s origin. The possibility of water damage on top of the fire provided a bitter irony for relief workers. Kelly Guenther, the site coordinator for Occupy Sandy there, said some of the teams who were cleaning up homes flooded by Hurricane Sandy would turn their attention to the church. “At least we’re really, really good at it,” she said, adding that it was the second time the church had had water damage since relief work began in November. Last month, the boiler room flooded after a pipe burst. Three volunteers were sleeping on the second floor when the fire broke out. They were there as a security precaution after a spate of thefts that included donated materials and Father Ballard’s bicycle, Ms. Guenther said. At Brown Memorial Baptist Church nearby on Washington Avenue, roughly 50 members of the fire-affected congregation found refuge on Sunday in a soaring room, rimmed with festive lights. “We were literally without an inn, and you took us in,” Howard Blunt, a member of St. Luke and St. Matthew, told the Baptist congregation. “And so for us, this Sunday, this is Bethlehem.” On Sunday evening, Father Ballard said that St. Luke and St. Matthew would reopen for Christmas services, beginning Monday night.
