Texas firefighters are investigating the cause of a fire Wednesday evening at the Torah V’Chesed Orthodox Sephardic Synagogue in Houston.
Dozens of Jews were learning Torah at the synagogue when the fire broke out at around 9 pm local time Wednesday night.
Police rushed into the building when they saw the flames on the roof of the building, and evacuated everyone.
Several of the members of the congregation tried to run back into the building to save the Torah scrolls, but they were stopped by the firefighters, who went into the fire instead, and brought out the fire Torahs.
Two of the Torah scrolls were damaged by water. No injuries were reported in the blaze.
Rabbi Avraham Yaghobian thanked the firefighters and police for their bravery.
It’s not yet clear what started the fire.