BETHEL -- Bethel police are investigating a Monday morning fire in an abandoned church in the center of town.
Firefighters were called around 6 a.m. to the fire at the former Pentecostal Holiness Church at Fourth Avenue and Main Street. They relied on a water truck with a high-pressure hose to put out the fire. Most of Bethel doesn't have piped water.
The weathered two-story church had been abandoned for years and the fire is considered suspicious, said acting investigation Sgt. Amy Davis.
Acting fire chief Bill Howell said there was a living area in the back of the church but no one appeared to be staying there.
"There's no vehicles parked around here. There's no boats. There's no four-wheelers, ATVs, snowmachines, none of the accouterments of normal Alaska life," Howell said.
Investigators don't yet know what caused the fire.
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