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April 20, 2007

Update: Arson causes Olneyville mill fire

-- Journal photo by Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE — An arson fire that was discovered late Thursday night severely damaged a vacant 19th-century factory building in an Olneyville mill complex.

Assistant Fire Chief Michael J. Dillon said today that especially heavy charring at several locations on the Magnolia Street side of the complex showed those to be the fire’s points of origin. Those signs combined with the fact that there is no electrical power in the building led firefighters to quickly conclude that the blaze was set.

Firefighters were sent to the site — the former Colonial Knife manufacturing complex at 287 Oak St. — at 11:30 p.m. yesterday and stayed throughout the night in order to take care of hard-to-extinguish hot spots and to safeguard the building until arson investigators completed their work, according to Dillon.

There was heavy fire damage to the interior of the two-story structure but no significant damage to the outer walls, according to Dillon. The wooden floors of the brick-and-wood mill building had buckled in some places and firefighters wanted to wait until daylight to negotiate the interior for safety’s sake, the assistant fire chief said.

“The main body of the fire was knocked down within 30 minutes,” Dillon said. “They kept it from spreading to other buildings in the complex. They did an excellent job of doing that.”

The firefighters finally left at about 9 a.m. today, according to Dillon.

There was another fire of suspicious origin in a warehouse in the complex, at 28 Agnes St., in November 2006.

-- Journal Staff Writer Gregory Smith

Posted by Kate Bramson  at 5:22 PM | Permalink

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