Reporter: Ellie Mahan
July 21, 2023
More than one year ago, Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church burned down Sunday, May 15, 2022 in a fire that the Whitney Police Department and other authorities initially suspected to be a potential arson case. Local law enforcement agencies and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigated the fire further. According to Whitney Fire Chief David Gilmore, no evidence of an accelerant being used to start the fire was uncovered in the investigation.
Chief Gilmore, who has training in advanced fire investigation, advanced structural firefighting and advanced fire inspection, worked for Mansfield Fire Department at the time of the fire. Gilmore has lived in the Whitney area for 35 years and was also a reserve Whitney police officer at the time of the fire. The Whitney Police Department consulted Gilmore for his fire investigation experience, and he advised the authorities to seek ATF involvement.
Six ATF agents from all over the state of Texas traveled to Whitney for the investigation. Gilmore said, “I was right there with them when they were doing all of their investigation. It was very interactive.”
He continued, “There were no accelerants used. They did all the samples. They had an arson dog that can pretty much smell anything. He hit on nothing.” Roy McCleary, experienced Whitney firefighter and retired Mansfield Fire Rescue battalion chief, explained that in the fire investigations he has been a part of, the dog directs investigators to the best places to take samples. Although in this case the dog did not give any positive alerts, ATF still took samples and looked into potential causes of the fire.
Gilmore said that cans of bug spray near the church were looked into as possible accelerants. The cans of bug spray were labeled as flammable; however, the propellant butane is the element of the spray that is flammable, rather than the repellent liquid itself being flammable at a resting state. ATF investigators tested the possibility of the bug spray as an accelerant by saturating wood and attempting to light it on fire. ATF personnel were unable to get the wood to light on fire when using a torch.
The cause of the fire is being listed as “undetermined,” but based on the ATF investigation, Whitney Fire Department personnel indicated that a possible cause of the fire was a cigarette that was left in a flower bed next to the church steps. Multiple cigarette ends were found in the area where the fire originated near the steps. A contributing factor of the fire was reportedly cardboard that was placed underneath the soil of the flower beds to prevent weeds.
While investigating, several unoccupied buildings near the church were looked into for living places of potential suspects. Gilmore said, “I had to do investigations in every one of these buildings to see if it even looked like… somebody, maybe a vagrant living in there, went over there and started it. We had to check everything.”
Another theory that was investigated was the possibility of one of the campers at Lake Whitney State Park starting the fire. Authorities obtained records of every camper who visited Lake Whitney State Park the night prior to the fire and the night of the fire. Then background checks on the individuals were conducted by the ATF to determine if they had committed any hate crimes in the past.
Gilmore said that investigators covered all their bases and fully investigated for possible signs of foul play. “If I thought for one reason that this was arson, then we would still be on this,” he said.
Any further updates released by the ATF will be printed in a future edition of The Lakelander Newspaper.
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