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Firefighters spent several hours extinguishing a church fire that was well-involved near Balclutha on Saturday.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said five crews were dispatched to the blaze in Baker St, Stirling, from about 6.20pm.
They found ‘‘an old church was well ablaze’’ and worked to extinguish it.
‘‘We were there a considerable amount of time while we fully extinguished the fire...’’
The church was quite large and sustained ‘‘extensive damage’’.
Firefighters left the scene about 12.30am yesterday.
A fire investigator was looking into the blaze’s cause and it was not being treated as suspicious at this stage, the spokesman said. — Allied Media