Police: Seventh St. Louis church property set on fire in 2 weeks

ST. LOUIS -- An arsonist set fire to the rectory doors of a 172-year-old Catholic church early Thursday, marking the seventh attempt to burn a place of worship in the St. Louis area in two weeks, police said.

Authorities said an emergency responder used a fire extinguisher to snuff flames apparently fueled by an accelerant on the heavy, wooden front door of the rectory at the stately Shrine of St. Joseph church near downtown. No one was injured, and the rectory was unoccupied when the blaze was reported about 1:30 a.m., St. Louis fire chief Dennis Jenkerson said.

Police chief Sam Dotson has said the churches that have been set alight since Oct. 8 vary denominationally, and until early Thursday, the fires were within a few miles of each other and in largely black neighborhoods. But the latest blaze involved a church outside the radius of the previous fires, and local media outlets reported Shrine of St. Joseph Church's congregation is largely white.

In every case, the front doors were ignited, leaving damage that ranged from virtually nothing at one church to the near destruction of another.

Jenkerson told reporters Thursday the blaze at the Shrine of St. Joseph was "very similar" to the other church fires, speculating the attacks could be motivated by a disagreement or mental illness.

Fire Capt. Garon Mosby, a spokesman for the department, has said the possibility the fires are hate crimes -- for religious or racial reasons -- "is part of the dynamic" of the investigation.

"We don't know at this time," Jenkerson said.

On Tuesday, Dotson said police planned to step up patrols, and investigators were trying to develop profiles of possible suspects in connection with the blazes. Thursday's fire was the first since Sunday.

Rewards totaling $9,000 have been offered for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible for the church fires, which Gov. Jay Nixon has condemned as "cowardly acts" and "deeply troubling."