Rancho Cordova church destroyed in fire; pastors say it was arson

A Rancho Cordova church was destroyed in an early morning fire Saturday, Feb. 8. Deputies from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office initially responded to the call at 2:45 a.m. at the Casa Fuego de Dios Church in the 10000 block of Folsom Blvd. for reports of a potential burglary in progress. When deputies arrived, they saw smoke coming out of the building; crews from Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District were quickly deployed to the scene. The blaze was upgraded to a second-alarm fire. It took about an hour for the crews to contain the fire. They stopped it from spreading to other structures, but the church building was reported as a complete loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but members of the church said in a Facebook post their church was "attacked." Other media outlets reported leaders of the church say they have security video footage which shows a man breaking into the building and yelling curse words shortly before the fire began. Church Pastors William and Merlin Resuleo have started a GoFundMe page; on that page, they expressed their pain over being the target of an alleged attack by a person filled with hatred. "For a long time, we raised funds and invested in building a place where people could have an encounter with God and be transformed. Because of the fire, we have lost instruments, one sound and projection system, Sunday school supplies, and more," said the statement on their GoFundMe page. The pastors are appealing to the community to help them rebuild their church. Their GoFundMe page can be found at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-casa-fuego-de-dios-after-fire?attribution_id=sl:fec77ca8-6f07-453f-86ea-dbb3e07df1c3&lang=en_US&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link