NEW YORK—A church in Queens was badly damaged by a fire hours before Sunday Mass, forcing the parish to cancel services.
The Fire Department was called to the two-alarm blaze around 5:45 a.m. Sunday at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church. The church is on 37th Avenue in Corona, Queens.
It took 106 firefighters about two hours to bring the blaze under control. No injuries have been reported.
Mass was canceled Sunday and won’t resume until further notice. Church service for the entire week has been canceled. One of the workers said that it would take at least 30 days before the damage would be repaired.
The fire department is still investigating the cause of the fire. The department declined to give an update on the investigation.
The first Roman Catholic Church to minister to Corona opened its doors in 1872 and regularly offered Spanish and English services to the local Hispanic community.
The church was originally a wooden structure that was replaced with brick in 1900, according to the Greater Astoria Historical Society.
