Early morning fire claims empty church building in Edgemere neighborhood

Last Updated on November 14, 2021, 4:20 PM | Published: July 6, 2021

OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — A vacant church building on the line between the priced-up Edgemere and Jefferson Park neighborhoods at 408 N.W. 30th partially burned in a midnight two-alarm fire.

The building was unoccupied and no one was found in the building even though firefighters saw signs that transients had been living in parts of the building.

Midnight fire

Oklahoma City Fire Department (OKCFD) officials reported that flames were already visible in the second-story windows when the first company arrived just after midnight in the early morning hours Tuesday.

After running a line into the interior, firefighters began to battle the flames starting at the bottom of the stairwell that led up to the second story in the two-story education wing of the church. However, due to excessive heat and zero visibility, the crew was ordered outside to continue fighting the blaze.

Firefighters could not cut a hole through the roof quickly, evidently due to layers of roofing materials built up over the years. Without the ability to allow gasses and heat to escape and then finding that the roof was becoming unstable, crews retreated for their safety.

Firefighters were able to contain the fire to the two-story wing and save the structure of the sanctuary.

However, later in the morning Free Press found the building doors wide open. We saw that heat had burned ceiling materials and had blown out a stained-glass window and several other windows of the sanctuary.

The empty interior of the sanctuary with no pews, seating, or chancel furniture present appeared to have not been used for its original church purposes for years.

Former Hudson Ave Baptist

Oklahoma County Assessor records show that Hudson Avenue Baptist occupied the property for years until individuals took control of the property in 1993 with no sale price.

Those individuals then turned over the property for no sale price to Abyssinia Missionary church in 1997.

The property somehow went to a Sheriff’s sale in 2002 and sold to Arvest Bank that then sold the property to Confirmed Word of God Church in 2005.

In fact the building has been held by successive LLCs since the Confirmed Word of God congregation, the last church to use the building, sold the property to a bank in 2008.

Current assessor records show that the property is valued at $630,815 and currently belongs to American Dream LLC based in Edmond.