CHRISTIANSTED — Arson investigators are combing through the charred remains of two downtown properties Thursday after a pair of suspicious blazes struck the historic district within a 12-hour window, leaving one man dead and a landmark church building in ruins.
The first alarm sounded at 1:58 p.m. Wednesday when VIFEMS units from C Company were dispatched to East Street. Firefighters arrived to find a small wooden residence fully engulfed in flames. While crews contained the fire within 20 minutes, they discovered the building’s occupant, identified by next of kin as Shefton Clarke, 65, outside the structure. Clarke was later pronounced dead; the Virgin Islands Police Department has ordered an autopsy to determine his exact cause of death.
The tragedy on East Street was only the beginning. At approximately 2:00 a.m. Thursday, emergency crews were called back to the downtown area where a “pre-dawn inferno” was tearing through the older secondary structure of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Christiansted Temple. The blaze gutted the interior of the building, which sits just blocks from the scene of the fatal fire. VIFEMS Director Antonio O. Stevens called the loss of life a “tragic incident” and confirmed that the Arson Investigation and Prevention Unit is currently analyzing both scenes to determine if the fires are linked.
The VIFEMS Arson Investigation and Prevention Unit remained on-site through Thursday morning to determine the cause of the ignition. In a statement, VIFEMS Director Antonio O. Stevens called the event a “tragic incident” and extended condolences to the family as the tight-knit Christiansted community grapples with the sudden loss.