About 18 Southbridge police officers, five state troopers and five Sturbridge police officers evacuated area businesses and homes while controlling a crowd of more than 1,000 spectators gathered to watch the blaze. The officers also controlled traffic around the entire perimeter of the mill, including West, Main and Mill streets.  Police had traffic rerouted to streets north of Main Street for seven hours.Fire Chief Leonard Laporte said the firefighters had the brunt of the fire in the Colonial Wood Products portion of the building under control at 1 p.m.But, as firefighters atop aerial extensions of ladder trucks struggled to control the fire in the central section of the building, the fire spread to the southern end of the building.

After the walls and roof of the central section had fallen and firefighters doused smoldering timbers at about 1 p.m., a 500-gallon propane gas tank exploded in the neighboring Southbridge Trucking building.  The explosion was contained in the building and sent flames shooting from the roof. Firefighters turned their efforts to extinguishing the fire raging in that building while dousing the nearby Pilsudski Polish American Club on Ballard Court as a precautionary measure.

The firefighters were successful in saving the club, but as they protected that front, another gas tank containing 300 gallons of natural gas next to the Southbridge Trucking building exploded. The firefighters had the entire fire under control by 2 p.m. but with walls still collapsing and embers burning, the mutual aid vehicles did not begin to leave until 3 p.m.  Southbridge had an engine at the scene through the night.

Although most of the building’s owners said they were insured, they said the insurance will not begin to cover the expenses incurred in the fire. Several trucks and other vehicles were moved away from the building after the fire was first discovered by several other vehicles were destroyed when the mill’s walls crashed down upon them.

Because the fire began on the second floor of the wood products building, and many of the businesses were located on the first floor, several business owners had only 10 minutes to evacuate employees and equipment. But Muir and some other business owners did not have enough time to evacuate the payroll for their employees, who were scheduled to get paid that afternoon. State Rep. Marilyn Travinski, D.Southbridge, said the Division of Employment Security office will be in town today to help those employees receive unemployment compensation.

Businesses destroyed in the fire are:  Colonial Wood Products, Southbridge Trucking, A&C Industries, Rayno Refuse Removal, Dick’s Satellite and Antenna and Midstate Recreational Vehicles. Fire officials gave a rough estimate of $1 million in damages, but said it is still too early to give a firm estimate of how much damage was done to the entire complex.

But some of the business owners said they hope to have their employees back on the payroll soon and are already making arrangements to relocate their businesses.
“We’re survivors by nature.  We’ll just have to regroup and get started again,” said one of the building’s owners, Norman Cloutier of Southbridge.  “I don’t get devastated by a thing like this.  I’ve been through tough times before.”

Muir was so determined to get back on his feet, he protested doctor’s orders to remain in the hospital overnight. Richard Thibeault, owner of Dick’s Satellite Antennas and Mid-State Recreational Vehicles, said he lost most of his stock in the fire, but still plans to relocate at 13 Caron St. and revitalize his business.

Thibeault and Cloutier said they are both anxious to recover from the disaster the fire dealt them. Both men said they believe Muir feels the same way since he recently landed a big contract with the Ford Motor Company and was planning to expand his business.

“Ironically, he picked up the contract because his major competitor had been burned out,” said Craig Lyman, a Sturbridge architect interested in restoring the buildings. One of the owners of A&C Industries, which was destroyed in the fire, Al Bourassa, said he also hopes to start over.

“I’m the owner of one of the businesses.  I just watched my machinery go through the floor,” Bourassa said.  Yet, while the businessmen haven’t let the fire get them down, many who expected to use a recent state grant to improve the complex were disappointed in the change the fire brought to their plans.

The town was awarded an $18,000 grant by the state Council on Arts and Humanities last week in order to study the potential of the mill complex for redevelopment. Fire officials said they would begin picking up the debris from the building today. “This saddens me because one of the reasons I came here was to work on projects like this one,” Directory of Inspections Joseph McEvoy said.  “I envisioned this as the centerpiece of the new redevelopment.  I had just said in a grant application that the only safe mill buildings are the ones that have been rehabilitated.”

The mill was the fifth mill building to burn down in New England this year. The fire was the largest blaze most of the firefighters at the scene had ever experienced.
“Even the guys who have been on the force for 20 years said they’ve never seen anything like it,” Southbridge Firefighter Gerry Caouette said.

Yet, despite the fact that firefighters like John Dawber and John Larochelle never had to crawl up an aerial ladder overhanging a mill fire before, the two men were the first to volunteer for the dangerous assignment. “It’s just part of the job.  I’ve been doing the job so long (eight years) that it just becomes part of the job,” Dawber said.  “I just thought, ‘It’s really hot,’ but I had to relay information on the fire and keep it from breaking through the fire wall.”

Tom Hickey, an assistant fire chief for Webster, said his main concern was in holding the fire wall so the fire wouldn’t spread to Main Street. “We couldn’t get enough line in here (behind the building) to fight the fire until we got more mutual aid,” Hickey said.  “The main idea was to hold that wall, which we were successful in doing.  With the oil-soaked floors, the fire just travels those floors and there’s no way to stop it.”

Utilizing pumper trucks from Muddy Brook in Woodstock, Conn., and Spencer, a Leicester ladder truck was able to attack the southwestern side of the firewall separating the northern end of the building while Southbridge firefighters fought the northeastern side. The pumper trucks drew water from the Quinebaug River while Main Street fire hydrants provided adequate pressure to fight the blaze, Lapore said.

Firefighters from Sturbridge, Charlton, West Brookfield, East Brookfield, Oxford, Dudley, St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer and Quinebaug, which manned the Southbridge fire station, also helped control the blaze. Firefighters said they were instructed to keep at least 20 feet from the fire because the lacquer and other explosive chemicals, paired with collapsing walls, made for a dangerous situation.

“You just don’t take any chances,” Webster Firefighter Raymond Jankowski said.  “You have to stay as far away as you can.  You just can’t get inside to hit what you want.” While the chemicals made the fire spread more easily, Laporte and Southbridge Fire Captain Lawrence Lavigueur said the fumes were not toxic.

Since smoke and ash were traveling toward the West Street School and ashes were falling upon schoolchildren, Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Johnson evacuated the West Street School and Southbridge High School. Other homes and businesses in the area were also evacuated. While firefighters battled the blaze, several volunteers helped serve them coffee, soda, juice, sandwiches and chicken provided by Burger King, Mario’s Restaurant and Rom’s Restaurant.

Possibly, the most devastating effect of the blaze was the setback the fire represented for downtown redevelopment. “We were just about to do a study to see what to do with the building,” Town Councilor Michael Choquet said.  “Now we can do a study on what to do with the parking lot.”
 
 

Other Fires of Southbridge

Other Southbridge Landmark Demolition Pages on this site:

AO Main Plant for DOD Project - 2000

YMCA -1975

Southbridge History Page

Whitney Home Page