Raw video: Spectacular mill fire in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Chief decides to let it burn.
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Above is Corey Welch's video from the fire first reported around 7:30 PM at the giant complex that once housed the Alice Mills Rubber Manufacturing Plant. Alice Mills was once the largest rubber goods factory in the world. The plant dates back to 1899. News reports indicate two firefighters were hospitalized for dehydration.
Here's more from an article by Donita Taylor and Richard C. Dujardin at the Providence Journal:
Fire Chief Gary Lataille said 10 to 15 departments from Rhode Island and Massachusetts were called in to help battle the seven-alarm blaze. While the fiire appeared to be small at first, according to Mayor Leo T. Fontaine, the fire quickly spread to engulf the 180,000-square-foot mill structure.
Lataille said that with the river bordering one side of the complex, and a huge parking lot bordering another, he determined early that the best strategy was to contain the fire so it would not spread to houses along River Street and to let it burn completely to the ground..
"By the looks of things, the fire is cooperating," he said, as crowds watched various walls come crashing down at various intervals. There were also at least two explosions.
