American Notes Crime

Blackened rubble was all that remained last week of the St. Augustine Catholic Church in Gainesville, Fla. It was the latest casualty in a wave of suspicious fires that have claimed 50 churches in Florida since April 1990, seven in Gainesville alone. Since most of the blazes have been explosive conflagrations that roared up in the middle of the night, some congregations have taken to sleeping in their sanctuaries to protect them.

There has been little apparent pattern to the fires, which have struck at a variety of denominations and at churches with both black and white congregations. A few days after the Gainesville fire, Florida police arrested an ex-convict from Chattanooga, Tenn., on charges of loitering in the area, but say he is only one of many suspects. State and federal investigators believe that while many of the fires are the work of just one or two arsonists, others may be copycat crimes. In that case, Florida churchgoers may have to bed down in the pews for some time.