MANCHESTER, Jamaica — The Central Power Point Church of God on Wint Road in Mandeville, Manchester was destroyed by fire on Thursday afternoon.

The church’s Bishop Glenton Johnson told Observer Online that everything was destroyed.

“I know that it is a great loss of about $10 million and it was like about five different sections in the church. In this time and season, it is quite a lot that we have lost. It will impact our members, because of the effort and all their commitment being put into this building over the years,” he said.

“We have been here over 13 years and things were running very well, but I realise that this is going to slow us down quite a bit, but it is our intention to rebuild. We are not going to allow this to stop us,” he added.

Bunny Neil, the proprietor of Neil’s Auto, a neighbouring property to the church, said he rushed to get in contact with the fire brigade.

He explained that due to a telecommunication issue, the fire station was unreachable by phone.

“The church behind us caught fire close to 5 o’ clock. One of my workers rushed to me and said the church was on fire. I had to rush and move some vehicles [that were] close to the church,” he said.

“I tried to call the fire brigade, but I got no answer then I called the police, who got in touch with the fire brigade,” he added.

He pointed out that the sub-officer in charge of the Mandeville police station Inspector Simon McCormack reached out to the fire department to respond to the blaze.

— Kasey Williams