Historic Black church in South L.A. burns for a third time

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A historic Black church in South Los Angeles that had been severely damaged in two previous fires went up in flames for a third time before sunrise Monday.

A fire at the vacant house of worship at East 27th and Paloma streets was reported just after 3:30 a.m., and the two-story wooden building “looks like it’s going to be a complete tear-down,” said Jennifer Middleton, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Flames ripped through the roof, and it took about 180 firefighters more than an hour and 36 minutes to knock down the blaze at 1001 E. 27th St.

An arson investigation is underway, Middleton said.

“Luckily, there are no injuries,” she said, adding that heavy equipment crews were on scene early Monday doing some demolition work. The building, she said, has been red-tagged. While there potentially is smoke or water damage to some neighboring structures, the fire was contained to the church.

The former Crouch Memorial Church of God in Christ was built in 1905, according to property records, and is part of a historic Black neighborhood, the 27th Street Historic District, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It first burned in October 2013 in a massive blaze during which two Los Angeles firefighters were injured.

When firefighters arrived that morning, they saw flames shooting from the attic. Within 15 minutes of their arrival, portions of the attic and second floor collapsed, trapping a firefighter in heavily burning debris and forcing him to use his emergency air canister to breathe, according to an LAFD significant incident summary report.

“I got fire all around me … I got fire all around me,” he could be heard saying over emergency radio transmissions before his colleagues carried him to safety. Another firefighter involved in the rescue was briefly evaluated for injuries, the report said.

A third firefighter was injured by what he said felt like an electric shock while he was on an aerial ladder spraying water onto the building.

Fire officials said that blaze appeared to have been accidental. At the time, Lawrence Magee, then 66, who has been the church’s pastor since 2011, said he may have unintentionally started the fire after he turned on a gas heater, telling reporters outside the charred building: “I feel terrible.”

“The historic church suffered grave damage and is considered a total loss monetarily,” the 2013 LAFD report read.

But the blighted, white-painted structure stood for more than a decade. Graffiti covered its charred facade, and it became a source of frustration for the neighborhood, attracting squatters and illegal garbage dumping.

The dilapidated building burned in another fire in 2024.

The abandoned Romanesque Revival-style building has been the source of numerous complaints to the city’s Department of Building and Safety since the initial fire. This September, the department ordered the building’s owner to “immediately remove all fired damaged debris that pose a Present, immenent, extreme and immediate hazard or danger to life or limb, health or safety.”

Property records show Crouch Memorial Church of God in Christ as the property’s most recent owner. Magee could not be reached for comment.

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Hailey Branson-Potts is a general assignment reporter who joined the Los Angeles Times in 2011. She reports on a wide range of issues and people, with a special focus on rural communities. She grew up in the small town of Perry, Okla., and graduated from the University of Oklahoma.

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