Someone apparently tried unsuccessfully today to spark a blaze at a University Heights church where arson fires broke out twice last month, authorities said.
Officers and firefighters were called to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in the 200 block of Adams Avenue around midnight after receiving a report of someone suspicious in the area, according to San Diego police.
When they got there, they smelled an odor believed to be from flammable liquid, but there was no fire, a San Diego fire-rescue dispatcher said.
They also found some letters from an exterior church sign were torn down and a hole cut in a fence on the property, Fox 5 reported.
Authorities were called to the same church around the same time Friday to knock down a small fire and found ''666'' spray-painted on a wall of the structure.
Around the same time on Dec. 20, a fire was intentionally set at the same structure by one or more burglars attempting to destroy evidence of a break-in, San Diego fire-rescue spokesman Maurice Luque said last month.
Damage from the first fire was estimated at $50,000 to the building and $25,000 to its contents.
