A fire that evacuated the First United Methodist Church on Saturday still is under investigation.

According to reports from the DeKalb Fire Department, the fire originated on the church roof. When firefighters arrived around 1 p.m. at the church, 321 Oak St., they found flames and heavy black smoke pouring from the roof. The fire caused an estimated $5,000 worth of damage.

While the blaze seemed to be large with the amount of smoke coming from the roof, the people at the church evacuated calmly.

“It looked worse than it really was,” the Rev. Kitty Ganzel said.

She said she was in the church performing a memorial service when a woman from the church entered and said the roof was on fire, causing people to exit from the church.

With the help of the Sycamore and Cortland fire departments, 28 firefighters were able to control the fire in about 30 minutes and the memorial service continued, Ganzel said.

Ganzel thought the work of the firefighters was appropriate.

“I really appreciated the respect they showed and the awareness that the building is a church,” Ganzel said.

The area now is surrounded with yellow, caution tape blocking off a piece of machinery and a pile of shingles that came off the roof. There are few visible signs of a fire on the outside of the church.

The smell of smoke and fire still lingers in the area behind the church where the fire occurred.

The fire damaged the interior only minimally and no one who was in the rooms near that part of the roof was injured. Ganzel said the youth center room, near the damaged part of the roof, received some damage from water, but that is about it.

On Sunday, services were back to normal except one class, which was moved to another part of the church, Ganzel said.