Video shows person crawling into Rancho Cordova church before it went up in flames

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    RANCHO CORDOVA (KOVR) — A church in Rancho Cordova went up in flames on Saturday after police said they got a call for a burglary there Saturday.

It happened at Casa Fuego de Dios Church on Folsom Boulevard.

The church building was reduced to rubble, but the flames were unable to touch the hearts of its people.

“A building is not a church, we are the church,” said the pastor’s wife Merlin Resuleo.

Resuleo was the one who woke up around 2:45 in the morning Saturday and saw motion on her church’s security camera. What she saw was what appeared to be a man slamming a shopping cart into the church building, cursing and later crawling into the church through a shattered window.

A camera inside then shows the building caving in.

“My heart was just apart because I could see that place coming down and all the memories that we have there,” Resuleo said. “All of the smiling faces I would see every Sunday morning.”

Her second home for the past three years is gone, but there have been warnings. Resuleo said there was a dumpster fire at the church three weeks ago followed by multiple broken windows.

“There was another window broken and there was a huge rock thrown into our window,” Resuleo said.

CBS News Sacramento asked the Rancho Cordova Police Department about these other incidents, but it could not confirm how many reports it had taken.

“Everyone was ignoring us, even the owners of the building,” Resuleo said.

Church members like Geovani Merino are now cleaning up the space where the church started eight years ago.

They plan to continue gathering at the spot on Cordova Lane until they get a new building.

“It was also nostalgic because we started off here before we started moving around to different places,” Merino said.

Resuleo hopes that they can buy a building next time and have ownership instead of renting.

“I can say I feel peace right now,” Resuleo said. “I feel the joy of God.”

They are fanning the flames from the fire into faith for what God will do for their church’s future.

“We know that God is with us,” Resuleo said.

Sac Metro Fire and law enforcement could not confirm if any arrests have been made.

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