Advertisement Cause of Greenville church fire unknown, but not suspicious, officials say Fire reported around 8:45 a.m. Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A fire that destroyed a Greenville church Thursday is not suspicious, according to Parker Fire District Chief Steve Alverson, but he said he can’t speculate on a cause because there are too many variables.Alverson said the State Law Enforcement Division investigators agreed that the cause of the fire is not suspicious.Thom Berry, with SLED, said his agency provided technical and personnel to the local fire service, but it's ultimately up to local fire officials to make the final call on whether the fire was suspicious in nature and what caused it.On Tuesday, Alverson said the cause of the fire is undetermined, but there will be no further investigation since there is no indication of it being suspicious.Firefighters battled strong winds the fast moving fire Thursday morning, but they were unable to save the church.Click HERE to watch dramatic video of the steeple topple during the fire. Pictures from the scene | Raw Sky 4 video from the scene | Sky 4 video shows flames coming from sanctuary of church The fire at Changing Your Mind Ministries on Beth Drive was first reported at 8:51 a.m. The fire started in a fellowship building behind the main sanctuary. Heavy smoke continued to pour from the building all morning.Sky 4 was overhead as flames broke through the roof of the building just before 10 a.m.Just after 10 a.m., the fire spread into the steeple and the main building.A short time later, the roof collapsed and the steeple toppled over.The fire was brought under control by about 11:30 a.m. Parker Fire District, Greenville city and Piedmont Park departments fought the fire.No one was injured in the fire or while fighting it, Alverson said."Some of these are kind of difficult because of the parking, access to the building makes it kind of difficult but under the circumstances, everything went OK," Alverson saidHe said firefighters will remain on scene for some time making sure hot spots don’t reignite. “It went OK,” Alverson said. “Everyone walked away.“It could have been a lot worse," he said. "If we hadn't protected our exposures, we could have had a lot of secondary issues, a lot of homes issues. Everything went very well, considering.”A man who had rented another building to church leaders said, "Changing Your Mind Ministries used to rent our building on Edwards Road. And then they were fortunate to find this building. Now, unfortunately, it looks like the building is no longer there. It's too bad, it really is a shame."Jessica Miller was one of several people who called 911 when smoke started coming from the church."I feel bad for the church because they just bought the church,” Miller said. “So I feel bad. My heart goes out."Many church members at the scene of the fire were too emotional to speak.WYFF News 4 was intially t told the fire was at the Church at Cherrydale, but were later told it was Changing Your Mind Ministries. To get breaking news alerts on stories like these, click here to download the WYFF 4 app. Pic link to 'Download Our App'9703840