Cause of fire at Sacramento’s Chinese Gospel Mission is ‘undetermined,’ officials say

Sacramento Fire Department investigators deemed the cause for the three-alarm fire that scorched a Chinese American church in downtown Sacramento as “undetermined.”

According to a statement Monday from Sacramento Fire Department spokesperson Keith Wade, the fire that burned through Chinese Gospel Mission on Saturday originated in an enclosed patio area at the back of the building. The building owner had documented multiple problems with homeless people in the area, the statement read, but the evidence did not explicitly indicate that the fire was caused by a person.

The evidence also did not show any signs of a hate crime, Wade said. The fire was extinguished within an hour and no injuries were reported.

The Chinese Gospel Mission was started after World War II by Frank Fung, pastor of the original church on Eighth Street. The ministry was renamed Chinese Grace Bible Church in the 1960s, when it was moved to the Greenhaven area. The 15th Street building has been in use by Chinese Gospel Mission since 1979.