Fire at old wood mill termed suspicious

PERU – Investigators were seeking the cause of a suspicious fire that swept through a portion of the former Diamond Match Co. wood mill, destroying a one-story brick building that had been used to store recyclable materials.

No injuries were reported in the Monday night blaze as about 80 firefighters from a half-dozen towns scrambled to keep the flames from spreading to the attached main mill.

At least a dozen fire engines, tankers and three or four ladder trucks remained at the scene late into the night.

“Right now it’s suspicious,” said Sgt. Tim Holland of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, noting that an investigator from the State Fire Marshal’s Office was returning to the scene Tuesday. The building that burned had no electricity, officials said.

The blaze was the latest in a series of suspicious fires in the area.

“The extent of burn is so severe it may be nearly impossible to figure out where it started. It had a good start before it got reported,” Holland said.

The sprawling mill complex operated from 1934 to 1988, turning out matches, toothpicks, ice cream sticks, tongue depressors and other small wooden items under the Diamond Brands name.

The River Valley Growth Council acquired the mill three years ago from a contractor who had used it for storage and a recycling business.