Two 12-year-olds have been charged with setting a fire at a church in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on Friday.
Police believe the pair, a boy and a girl, went inside St. John the Evangelist church on Central Street in the middle of the day, lit a candle at the entrance and tossed the matches aside.
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They are each charged with breaking and entering a building in the daytime, destruction of property over $1,200, larceny from a building and burning of a building.
An employee told police everything seemed fine when they were working at the food pantry around 2 p.m. The pastor told EMTS that he started smelling smoke around 3:30, so authorities believe it happened sometime between then. Police officers and firefighters were on scene by 3:40.
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They quickly realized the fire had already been put out with an extinguisher based on some yellow powder at the front of the church.
When they went further inside, investigators noticed a water jug was missing from a dispenser in the priest’s preparation room, which leads them to believe the suspects tried to put the fire out with water.
When that didn’t work, they used the extinguisher, leaving behind that yellow powder. Most of the damage is near the altar – the altar cloth is scorched and pages of the bible burned.
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Police also found food from the pantry by the back door.
The preteens will be arraigned in Brockton District Juvenile Cout at a later date. Their names were not released due to their ages.
