WOONSOCKET, R.I. — With the massive blaze that destroyed a 112-year-old mill under control, city officials and business leaders Wednesday began to weigh the historic and economic loss to the city.
The old Alice Mill Rubber Manufacturing Plant, a fixture in the city since the late 1800s, is owned by Woonsocket's American Wood Pellet Co., which was planning to use part of the space to manufacture wood pellets and lease the rest to other companies moving into the area.
Woonsocket Mayor Leo T. Fontaine said the mill's loss would delay its planned redevelopment, which was expected to bring new jobs to the city, which has an unemployment rate of about 16 percent. But the conflagration may have a silver lining because there were some limitations to what could be done with the property, Fontaine said.
"It may actually work out better. This may be an opportunity to build from scratch," he said.
Moreover, the real economic loss took place a few years ago, when the last tenant, Portola Tech, moved out, taking several hundred jobs with it, Fontaine said.
The massive fire that broke out on Tuesday night gutted the building — most of the roof collapsed — and firefighters were letting the structure burn to the ground.
Investigators had not yet been able to enter the structure as of Wednesday afternoon.
But state Fire Marshal Jack Chartier said he believes residual heat from a blow torch left behind by a construction worker sparked the blaze. That conclusion came from interviews with workers who had been renovating the mill during the day Tuesday and fire fighters. The building did not have a permit for blow torch work, which would have required a fire watch, Chartier said.
At least one firefighter was injured.
Matt Wojcik, director of economic development for Woonsocket, called the mill a "major historical asset" to the city and said the neighborhood would be radically changed without it. But he expressed optimism that the 7.5-acre parcel could be redeveloped.
Alice Mill was built in 1889 by Woonsocket Rubber Company, in its day the leading importer of raw rubber into the U.S., according to histories about Woonsocket. At the height of its operation, the factory was the largest rubber goods factory in the world, employing 2,000 people.
Later, the mill, which was named for the mother of Woonsocket Rubber Company's owner, would manufacture the popular U.S. Keds sneakers. Alice Mill was shuttered in 1932, but reopened in 1941 to manufacture barrage balloons, rubber assault vehicles and other rubber products needed during World War II.
Steven Triedman, owner of American Wood Pellet Co., bought the mill last year to manufacture wood pellets, a renewable energy source produced from waste wood that's considered an inexpensive alternative to heating oil.
"It was a hell of a shock. I pulled up, and the mill was fully engulfed," Triedman said.
Triedman's company, which also has two office buildings on the property that did not burn down, was planning to hire 10-15 employees to work at the pellet factory, and he said the company had hoped to expand from there. In addition, he had leased excess space in the mill to three companies with two more slated to sign leases this week. Of those, four were new to the area, he said. He was unsure how many jobs that would have brought to the area.
"We can't replace what was here. We have to start to rebuild for our company, and if we can accommodate other tenants, we will try to," he said.
Woonsocket is located 14 miles north of Providence and is two miles from the Massachusetts state line.
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Associated Press writer Ian MacDougall in Providence, R.I., contributed to this report.