Fire offical: Church collapses in NE D.C.

WASHINGTON | A D.C. fire official says a small church has collapsed in northeast Washington.

Fire department spokesman Pete Piringer says when a tree fell on the roof of the Joshua Temple Church Ministry on Sheriff Road northeast on Saturday afternoon, the weight of the tree and the snow made the roof collapse and then the walls gave way.

Piringer says the only thing left is the church’s steeple.

He says no one was inside the one-and-a-half-story wood frame church when it collapsed and homes on either side of the church were not damaged.

Piringer says emergency workers have been called to a half dozen partial collapses of buildings in the city on Saturday.

CulturalTourismDC lists the church on its African American Heritage Trail, noting it was built in 1908.