Dr. Thomas Mayes, Pastor of the Living Water Christian Center in Aurora, doesn’t know who would set fire to where he holds his ministry over Easter weekend. But, that didn’t stop the celebration.
“Our ministry was determined. We went in on Easter Sunday morning with our masks on,” said Mayes, who is also the president of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance and Vice President of the Rocky Mountain NAACP. “Other congregations all canceled their services, but we had ours. In fact, some of their members joined us in service on Easter Sunday morning.”
Six ministries use the Living Water Christian Center, which is owned by Aurora First Presbyterian Church. Aurora firefighters responded to a fire in the building on March 28. The fire completely destroyed three offices on the south end of the building’s basement.
Mayes and his wife worked out of two of the offices. The third office is the main office of the building. Mayes’ office equipment, robes, books, and library were also destroyed. He now has to work out of his home.
Aurora Fire Rescue spokesperson Dawn Small confirmed that the investigation is underway.
“Our investigators are in the stage of interviewing witnesses and formulating a hypothesis related to the fire’s origin and cause. Then, they will be analyzing the information and data gathered and determining whether the hypothesis can be substantiated,” Small said in an emailed statement.
No official cause or origin was given as part of the statement. But, Mayes said that investigators told him that there’s surveillance footage that shows that the fire was caused by arson. He said he hasn't seen the video.
“The arson dog came in within hours after the fire and detected an accelerant through surveillance cameras from different buildings,” Mayes said. “They did see someone throw something through the window in the style of a Molotov cocktail and took off.”
Mayes has used the building for his ministry since 2004. His congregation has approximately 50 members. The majority is African American with Asian Pacific and Hispanic members.
Mayes, a former candidate for the Aurora City Council, doesn’t know who or why someone would target the Living Water Christian Center. He said they are assessing the damage and believe it will cost $100,000 to repair.
He told CPR News that the Aurora First Presbyterian Church has been helpful throughout the ordeal.
“They're hurting as well, but they're helping out a lot. They've already started looking at other areas in the church that they can clean up quickly so that we can have office space,” Mayes said. “The only problem with that, we don't have any furniture. We don't have any computers, anything to work with to put in an office.”
