By morning there was very little left but a burnt out shell with the collapsed centre wall forming a barricade across the road.
Employees of the Burnley mill destroyed in a spectacular blaze in the early morning on 28th August 1969 were reassured as they stood watching the final stages of the fire that they would not be unemployed. The 34 workers of the gutted Finsley Gate Mill of James Baron and Sons Ltd, will be absorbed by the firm's mill in Rochdale, said Mr. William Fielding, the Burnley manager yesterday. And late afternoon, shortly after final traces of fire had been extinguished demolition workers were called in to pull down the barely standing walls of the century old building, one of Burnley's oldest mills, while police cordoned off the surrounding area.
"The damage constitutes about 90 per cent of the mill, with additional damage from water" said Mr. I. Thomas, Burnley's Deputy Chief Fire Officer. The fire authorities were today continuing their investigations into the cause of the fire, a task made difficult by the speed and fierceness of the blaze, destroying possible evidence of its beginnings.
The blaze, which was visible for miles around, attracted crowds of spectators and a stream of traffic to the comparative safety of the Centenary Way flyover, for a grandstand view of the fire. This is the second fire at the mill within a few weeks. In June, four floors and the roof were damaged by a fire which broke out in the storage premises. Reinforcements to fight yesterday's blaze were called in by the local fire brigade from Padiham, Accrington, Nelson and Colne. The blaze, fanned by a strong wind, was well under way by the time the fire brigade arrived, immediately following the alarm given at 1.30am by an employee of the Ribble bus depot. Ten pumps, three turntable ladders, one snorkel hydraulic platform and 65 men from the combined fire crews fought the blaze all night, the most severe in the town since Belling's fire 13 months ago. One of the first people to see the blaze was Mr. Les Gowers, works director of the E.S.B. Engineering Co Ltd only a few yards away from Baron's premises. "I was working late, and I heard a terrific explosion" said Mr. Gowers "I went outside, and there was the mill blazing away. The fire brigade arrived shortly afterwards." Within half an hour, the central wall of the mill had crashed across the road. Firemen were alerted, however, and nobody was hurt. More than 400 tons of highly combustible cotton waste, the mill's entire stock, was blazing almost immediately after the first of several emergency calls was received at the brigade's switchboard, so that the firemen concentrated on the ends of the building to prevent the spread of flames. For the second time in a few weeks, the mill's caretakers, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bulllock were told to leave their home next door to the mill, because of danger from blazing timber and falling masonry. Their neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Walker were also evacuated. But both cottages escaped fire damage.