{"id":3612,"date":"2026-07-22T15:35:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3612"},"modified":"2026-07-22T15:35:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:35:33","slug":"church-collapses-prompting-2-block-evacuation-over-gas-leak-fears-nc-town-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/church-collapses-prompting-2-block-evacuation-over-gas-leak-fears-nc-town-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Church collapses, prompting 2-block evacuation over gas leak fears, NC town says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small town in eastern North Carolina was forced to evacuate a two-block radius<\/a> after a beloved church collapsed, creating fears of a dangerous gas leak.<\/p>\n

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It happened around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Farmville, and firefighters arrived to find the middle of the church had crumbled, leaving the bell tower leaning at about a 25-degree angle. The brick building was unoccupied at the time, officials said.<\/p>\n

Neighbors were whisked away at a community center until the gas line was secured<\/a> at around 9:30 p.m., town officials said. No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike so many in our community, I was saddened to learn of the structural collapse of the former Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church building,\u201d Farmville Mayor Alex Joyner<\/a> wrote in a July 22 Facebook post.<\/p>\n

Read more Flooding possible as storms \u2018repeatedly move over the same areas,\u2019 forecasters say<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the congregation relocated some time ago and the building was no longer being used for regular services, seeing the loss of a longtime landmark is still difficult for many who have memories connected to it. … Buildings are part of our history, but they are not what define a community. Farmville\u2019s strength has always been its people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigators did not release a cause for the collapse, but neighbors told WITN the building \u201chad been leaning<\/a> for nearly a year.\u201d Crews began taking down the remainder of the building Tuesday night, to prevent sections from falling onto power lines, the station said.<\/p>\n

Farmville is in Pitt County, about a 70-mile drive southeast from downtown Raleigh.<\/p>\n

Read more Charlotte broker submitted 17 false life insurance applications, NC officials say<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Small town in eastern North Carolina was forced to evacuate a two-block radius for hours after a church collapsed, creating fears of a dangerous gas leak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nChurch collapses, prompting 2-block evacuation over gas leak fears, NC town says - \u0421harlotte Relocation Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/church-collapses-prompting-2-block-evacuation-over-gas-leak-fears-nc-town-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church collapses, prompting 2-block evacuation over gas leak fears, NC town says - 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