CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Hundreds of worshippers scrambled out of a Cambridge church on Sunday after the building caught fire during morning religious services.

NewsCenter 5’s Lynn Jolicoeur reported that about 300 people were inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meeting house when the fire alarms sounded at about 10:30 a.m.

“Once we came out we started to see the smoke billowing out and the flames coming,” said church member Lisa Midgley.

The group was conducting a teleconference with a church organization in Utah at the time. Officials said everyone made it out of the church safely.

The building, which serves three congregational groups with about 500 combined members, was destroyed in the three-alarm fire. In keeping with religious tradition, the church was not insured for the damages, but congregants said they plan to rebuild the structure using church resources.

The alarm system indicated that the fire began in the attic. Investigators do not believe that foul play was involved in the blaze, but the incident has been referred to the state fire marshal’s office per state regulations.

“There’s only two little hatches to get to the attic area, so it’s really no stairway,” said Cambridge firefighter Gerald Reardon. “Firefighters, when they first arrived there, tried to fight it from both those hatch locations. The fire had already had a pretty good head start by the time they got there.”

Firefighters and congregants toiled to rescue several pieces of artwork and antiquarian books from the church, including religious paintings and texts from an educational center housed inside. Worshippers formed a bucket brigade to pass the items out of the church into a Quaker meeting house across the street, while fire crews loaded up backboards with stacks of books and other items.

“This is tragic,” said Cambridge Stake President Gordon Low. “This is a historic building for us.”

The church, which was constructed in the 1950s, was the first formal chapel in the Boston area built for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While many congregants were stunned to see their house of worship erupt into flames, other saw the group’s response to the fire as a testament to the strength of their religious community.

“At the end of it, we still have our friends, we still have our faith and everyone’s safe,” said congregant Derek Christensen.