North Phoenix residents say they plan to protect their neighborhood against crime and vandalism on their own after a fire at St. Joseph's Catholic Church.
Linda Sunshine has lived in her home near 40th and Shea, across the street from St. Joseph's Catholic Church, for 30 years.
The church fire and two incidents of vandalism along Shea Wednesday morning struck her as out of the ordinary.
“It’s a quiet neighborhood," she said. "We don’t have a lot of vandalism. We don’t have a lot of burglaries."
Phoenix Police are handling the two cases along Shea. The Phoenix Fire Department is investigating the fire.
“When you look at something like this, a place of worship, this, St. Joseph Church was iconic for this neighborhood," said Fire Captain Rod McDade. “We had extra fire investigators out here. We had ATF. We understand the ramifications of needing to find an answer.”
McDade said they have had various investigators inspect the scene since the blaze was reported early Wednesday morning. He said a K-9 unit was also dispatched to investigate and may be able to alert investigators of potential signs of arson, if any are at the scene.
“He is an accelerant-sniffing dog trained to look for any accelerant, anything that shouldn’t be there.”
Investigators say they are not ruling any cause of the fire out at this time. McDade expected more information in the coming days.
“Do we have footprints, fingerprints? If we don’t, we rule it out," he said. "We might come out with the conclusion that believe it or not it’s not connected to this. Or, there’s definite consistencies between these events and PD does their work.”
In the meantime, residents like Sunshine have made plans to protect their homes against potential vandals.
“We are creating a neighborhood watch and we are putting cameras on our house," she said. “We are going to be proactive. This is enough of this.”
This is a developing story. Check back in with 12 News for the latest on this investigation.