A massive fire destroyed a 130-year-old church on Cleveland's east side early Friday, reducing a building that began life as a synagogue in 1896 to a smoldering shell before firefighters could get the upper hand.

Cleveland Fire crews were called to the vacant former Friendship Baptist Church at East 55th Street and Central Avenue just before 2 a.m., according to ABC News. What started as a routine call quickly grew into a multi-alarm blaze, with flames ripping through the structure from multiple directions at once.

An 'incredibly challenging' fight

Nearly 60 firefighters responded to the scene, battling heat so intense that crews were forced to pull their trucks back during the initial response, according to Fox 8 Cleveland. The building's windows blew out from the heat, large pieces of burning wood and roofing were thrown into the air, and the roof ultimately collapsed as the fire consumed the sanctuary.

"IRREPLACEABLE" — CLEVELAND FIRE LT. MIKE NORMAN, ON THE LOSS

Cleveland Fire Lt. Mike Norman estimated the loss at roughly $500,000 and did not mince words about what the city had lost, calling the building irreplaceable, according to News 5 Cleveland. No injuries were reported among firefighters or civilians, a small mercy given the ferocity of the blaze and the building's advanced age.

The church's history traces back well over a century, to a period when the East 55th Street corridor was home to a thriving Jewish community. Built as a synagogue in 1896, the building shifted hands over the decades as Cleveland's neighborhoods changed, eventually becoming a Christian Baptist sanctuary under the Friendship Baptist Church congregation. It had sat closed and vacant for several years before Friday's fire, a fate common to many of the city's older, underused religious buildings.

Cleveland fire investigators have not yet determined a cause, and the investigation remains open. Vacant buildings present particular challenges for arson and accidental-fire investigators alike, since there are typically fewer witnesses, less surveillance coverage and less regular maintenance to rule out structural or electrical causes.

City preservationists have separately begun raising questions about what happens to the dozens of other aging, vacant church buildings scattered across Cleveland's east side, many of which share the same layered religious history and the same vulnerability to exactly this kind of catastrophic loss. For now, city officials say their focus remains on securing the site and completing the cause investigation, with no timeline yet for either.