NEW YORK – A historic church in lower Manhattan that houses New York's Liberty Bell and whose congregation dates to the earliest days of the city's settlement was gutted by a massive fire early Saturday that sent flames shooting through the roof.The Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village burned before dawn after a fire spread from a five-story vacant building adjacent to the church around 5 a.m.
Video posted on Twitter shows flames shooting from the roof and the church's stately front window glowing from the conflagration inside. “We are devastated.
We are gutted like our building is gutted; our hearts are crushed like our doors are crushed,” said the Rev. Jacqueline J. Lewis.