Work by Matthew Stone

Sept. 3, 2009

GARDINER — Firefighters battled two separate blazes Wednesday at a defunct paper mill on Route 126 as police investigated a burglary at a nearby building.

No arrests were made, but police on Wednesday morning took a "person of interest" into custody for questioning before releasing him, Gardiner Police Chief James Toman said.

Police found the man, whom Toman declined to identify, in the woods near the scene of the fire.

"He certainly needs to reason with us as to why he was trying to conceal himself in the woods nearby," Toman said.

Police took the man into custody at about 11:40 a.m., and later released him. Toman didn't rule out taking the man back into custody.

Firefighters from Gardiner and 10 surrounding communities responded to reports of a blaze at the defunct paper mill shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday.

A motorist passing the property — which operated as the Cobbossee Mill until 1939 and later as the Yorktowne Paper Mill until it closed permanently in 2001 — noticed the blaze and called police, Toman said.

The fires engulfed two separate ends of the building, which now houses four businesses, said building owner Paul Rheaume. Only one tenant sustained minor water damage as a result of firefighting efforts, he said.

"We were just fortunate the major damage wasn't done to areas that were occupied," Rheaume said.

Gardiner authorities called investigators from the State Fire Marshal's Office soon after the fire broke out, Toman said.

"We know from the get-go if there's a fire here, that they need to be called," he said. "It should be one of the first calls we make, especially when (fires are) at a couple separate locations."

The investigators began combing through the wreckage Wednesday afternoon, looking for signs of how the blaze started. They hadn't yet determined whether the fire was arson.

Rheaume said the portion of the building that sustained the most damage didn't have electricity.

"To have the fire start up there sounds suspicious to me," he said.

Shortly after police responded to the early-morning blaze, Toman said, officers noticed an open door at a nearby warehouse that belongs to Standard Distributors. It appeared someone had burglarized a portion of the warehouse that stores ice, he said.

Authorities closed Route 126 between Elm Street and Washington Avenue all morning Wednesday as firefighters battled the fire.

The blaze went largely unnoticed by neighbors as it broke out. The mill is removed from the roadside at the bottom of a steep slope.

"They were so quiet, I didn't even hear them," Christine Clary, who lives on Oak Street near Route 126, said of the emergency responders.

The resulting traffic tie-up, however, put a hitch in plans for busing Gardiner students to school on their first day back from summer vacation.

"It's the first day of school for us, so it's created a lot of mayhem," said Toby Clary.

The couple took one of their daughters to an alternate bus stop and drove another one to school, they said.

Jon Stonier, transportation director for Gardiner-based School Administrative District 11, said the school district sent minibuses down side streets to pick up children who would normally wait for the bus near Route 126. The smaller buses can turn around more easily on side streets, he said.

The district also changed the location of some bus stops, Stonier said.

"All in all, it didn't bother us one bit," Stonier said of the road closure. "We were able to focus and get around it."

With the help of early-morning notice from police, Stonier said, "we were able to just route our buses around it."

It was the third mill fire in less than three months in central Maine: A working pellet mill in Strong blew up Aug. 8, injuring three; the landmark Cowan Mill in Lewiston was set aflame July 15.

Matthew Stone — 623-3811, ext. 435
mstone@centralmaine.com