An historic church and a barn in Sidney Center are brought down by fire.

As Action News Reporter Leigh Dana tells us, people in the community are devastated by the loss.

This is all that remains of the Sidney Center United Methodist Church.

Rubble lays in its place after a fire tore through around 4 Thursday morning, leaving many lost for words.

"I don't know..." says Harold Beisner.

Lifelong member of the church, Raymond Patrick, was one of the firefighters on the scene at Walton-Sidney Road...

Where his memories are now crumbled into a pile of ashes.

"Wish it never happened. Not much we can do here..." says Patrick.

Patrick was baptized here and says he was very active in the church.

So was Kristie Polomcean.

"I wanted to cry when I first saw it. I went here with my grandmother," she says.

People in the area says the more than one hundred year old church was recently renovated.

Michael Sellitti posted this picture of it taken just last month.

State Police and Fire investigators spent the afternoon searching through soot looking for clues to the cause...

That had firefighters battling flames for 3 hours.

They're also looking into a separate, but nearby, barn fire which started almost 15 minutes later.

Investigators are looking to see if the two are possibly connected.

In Sidney Center Leigh Dana WBNG TV Action News.

More than 120 volunteer firefighters responded to both fires.

No one was injured during either blaze.