Sarah Fowler

USA TODAY NETWORK - Mississippi

Samples taken from the burnt remains of a Greenville church tested negative for an accelerant, but officials are still investigating the blaze as arson.

Greenville Fire Chief Rowan Brown said Monday three samples were taken from inside Hopewell M.B. Church in Greenville hours after a fire gutted the historically black church. At least one of the samples was taken from the carpet, Brown said. The state Crime Lab in Pearl ruled the three samples tested negative for flammable substance or an accelerant.

“We don’t know if it was direct flame contact, contact with clothes or paper, but this here is an ongoing investigation and still remains to be an arson investigation,” Brown said.

Emergency responders received a 911 call around 9 p.m. Nov. 1 saying the century-year-old church was on fire. On the side of the burning building, "Vote Trump" had been scrawled in spray paint.

Brown said the building was a total loss.

Mayor Erick Simmons called the burning a hate crime.

FBI spokesman Brett Carr said the agency was assisting but that the investigation was being handled largely by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and local police.

A spokesperson with the ATF could not immediately be reached for comment.

Greenville Police Chief Delandro Wilson could not immediately be reached for comment Monday. Wilson previously told The Clarion-Ledger the department had spoken with a person of interest.

No arrests have been made. A GoFundMe page set up hours after the fire has raised $258,000 for the church.

Bishop Clarence Green, who pastors the church, posted on the GoFundMe that the church congregation was grateful for the outpouring of support.

"Words do not express the gratitude we have for your acts of kindness, love and support you have expressed. Whether your gift was small or great ($1-10,000 or more) we are eternally grateful (for) your act of love and kindness. We have a long road ahead of us, but we do have the faith in God that he will supply all of our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus," Green wrote.

Brown said in his 23 years at the fire department he’s never had a feeling like the one he felt when he pulled up to the scene that night and saw flames licking at the burning brick, mixing with smoke and rising toward the sky.

“I’ve seen a lot of things burn but when I arrived there on scene that night, it was just a different feeling,” he said. “I’m used to seeing houses, cars…it was just a sad, sickening feeling because I understand how sacred a place of worship is and what it means for families to come together.

“It definitely hit a low note in my spirit when I saw it burn,” he said.