HOLLYWOOD (AP)  -- An arson investigation was under way today into a wind-driven blaze that destroyed the landmark Little Country Church of Hollywood, leaving a firefighter with hand burns.

No one was inside the wooden two-story structure at 1750 N. Argyle Ave. when the fire broke out around 6:25 p.m. Monday.

The blaze was extinguished at 7:14 p.m. by a contingent of Los Angeles firefighters that started with 55 but eventually burgeoned to 137.

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

Soon after the fire began, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents were summoned to the scene -- ``a purely precautionary measure to ensure this is not a hate-crime- related incident,'' said fire Capt. Armando Hogan.

``They have in the past investigated hate crimes at houses of worship.''

The investigation into the blaze, including a search for accelerants, will involve the House of Worship Task Force, which includes federal and city agencies, fire officials said.

There were no civilian injuries from the fire, but one firefighter was treated for a hand injury at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital, Hogan said.

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 into a combination church and restaurant, complete with a bar.

In the 1930s, the congregation was led by William B. Hogg, a Tennessee preacher who may have been the nation's first radio evangelist. His religious broadcasts, on the CBS radio network, aired coast-to-coast until his death in 1937.

His widow, Virginia Hogg, who was known on the air as ``Sister Sarah,'' continued the program which lasted until the early 1960s.

The church was a popular setting for weddings involving Hollywood celebrities. But religious services ended at the 3,400-square-foot sanctuary on April 27, 1997, when a dwindling congregation could no longer afford to keep it running.