CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Fire investigators said a blaze inside a south Charlotte church this morning was deliberately set.
Arson investigators, firefighters and police are inside Providence Baptist Church on Randolph Road.
According to the investigation so far, a woman said she smelled smoke in the sanctuary of the church just before 9 a.m. She said when she spotted smoke, she called the fire department. She also notified the day care on the church campus.
Fire officials said it appears two separate fires were set in the church simultaneously, one in a storage area and one in a hallway area. They said there was no fire in the sanctuary, just smoke from the hallway blaze.
Providence Baptist Church is closed for the day. The day care, which is located in a separate building on the church campus, remains open.
About 40 people work at the church daily.
Meanwhile over in West Charlotte, investigators now say a storage building at West Charlotte High School that caught fire on Monday was set on purpose.
Students and staff were at the school for a summer program, but nobody was hurt.
Investigators believe two people set the fire but so far no arrests have been made.
The two cases are not related.
