Firefighters in New York battled a large blaze in the early hours of Saturday morning that gutted a historic church in lower Manhattan. The Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village caught fire before dawn after a blaze spread from an adjacent five-story vacant building about 5am. Video posted on Twitter showed flames shooting from the roof and the church's stately front window glowing from the conflagration inside. The church houses New York's Liberty Bell and its congregation dates from the earliest days of the city's settlement.
Historic New York church housing Liberty Bell gutted by massive fire