By FireRescue1 Staff

Photo Mike Meadows The steeple comes crashing down from the church.

LOS ANGELES — A wind-driven blaze destroyed a landmark church in Los Angeles, Monday.  

An arson investigation was launched following the fire at the Little Country Church of Hollywood, which left a firefighter with hand burns.

No one was believed to have been inside the wooden two-story structure when the fire broke out in the early evening.

Firefighters managed to confine the blaze to the structure, preventing it from spreading in the neighborhood despite fierce Santa Ana winds.

During the fire, the burning steeple came crashing to the ground, but firefighters had positioned themselves safely inside a doorway of the building.

Photographer Mike Meadows, who took several images of the blaze, captured the collapse on film.

"I didn't even have time to scream it was coming down," he said. "It only took about five seconds, from it starting to lean to hitting the ground."

After the incident was over, he spoke to the crews involved. "They said they were aware the steeple could come down, and after putting water on it they went inside just in case it fell. They were in the right position."

The church was built in 1934 as a reproduction of a country church from the late 1880s on a park-like setting only a block from Hollywood and Vine. It was declared a city cultural-historical landmark in 1992.

Recently, a developer proposed turning the structure, which has been vacant since 1992, into a combination church and restaurant, complete with a bar.