8-Alarm Fire Destroys Vacant Haverhill Mill

HAVERHILL (CBS) – A 8-alarm fire gutted a vacant mill complex in Haverhill Sunday evening.

Flames broke out in the building on Stevens Street just after 4 p.m.  Firefighters needed several hours to bring it under control, but no one was hurt.

James Bornstein lives across the street from the mill.

"(I) saw just a blaze starting in the far right hand side of the building from where I was standing. Once the fire department did get there you could see the fire just spreading and spreading and spreading," he told WBZ-TV.

"It was at one time a cotton mill and later on became a used as a textile-dyeing place," Mayor James Fiorentini told WBZ.

"The front building has been completely abandoned for about 20 years. The back building's been in partial use, up until fairly recently, people doing some storage or low-level work, still mostly unused."

There is no word yet on how the fire started.

The fire also caused delays on the MBTA's Haverhill line which runs to North Station.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal reports