SANFORD — Three boys have been arrested and charged with arson in connection with the Friday night fire at the Stenton Trust mill in Sanford, Maine Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said.

The fire roared through the rear portion of the vacant 1922 mill and was reported to authorities at about 6:50 p.m. Friday night.

The two homeless men who had been staying in the mill in recent weeks were located in Portland, McCausland said.

The boys arrested are a 12-year-old and two 13-year-olds, he said.

McCausland said the boys were arrested on Sunday and were taken to Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland early Monday morning. He said their first court appearance would take place once paperwork is filed at Springvale District Court.

McCausland said authorities have called a news conference for 1 p.m. Monday.

Earlier this morning investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office, the Sanford Police Department and Sanford Fire Marshal Patrick Cotter gathered at the scene to determine next steps in the investigation.

More than 100 firefighters from 20 departments throughout York County and nearby New Hampshire communities fought the raging fire from the exterior of the 300,000-square-foot mill. It was deemed too dangerous to go inside.

McCausland said that two of the upper floors had “pancaked” into the third floor.

The structure is comprised of two parallel concrete mills joined by an enclosed walkway structure. 

The fire roared through the rear portion of the massive structure, built as part of the Goodall textile empire. Fire could be seen from every window. Over the weekend, firefighters continued to apply water to the structure, to quell flare-ups and hotspots.

Mark Rouillard, an owner of Central Furniture and Appliance, just across River Street from the big mill, said his great-grandparents moved here from Canada to work in the mill. 

When Rouillard was 13-years-old, the store’s warehouse was located on the fourth floor of the portion of the mill that burned, and he often worked there, he said. 

Rouillard praised firefighters for their work.

He said the mill has become a magnet for trouble since it became vacant about a decade ago.

Though empty for most of the last decade — the last known business to occupy part of the mill structure was a wooden toy company in the mid to late 2000s — and it had once been a showpiece in the Goodall textile mill empire. It later became the home of Seamloc Carpet. Later still, it housed a number of smaller businesses.

City documents list the owner as Gateway Properties LLC, a company owned by Jonathan Morse, with a Reno, Nevada address.  Morse acquired the mill in 1999 and once operated a business there, but the mill  has essentially been  abandoned for  nearly a decade.

The mill structure was sold at auction in 2009 by a bank known at the time as Savings Bank of Maine for $210,000, which held the mortgage on the property, but  the prospective  buyers never closed on the deal. They told municipal leaders at the time that the rear portion of the structure — the part that burned Friday night — was in too poor condition for renovation.

The wing of the building closest to River Street, known as Tower A, was said to have been in  the best condition. The smaller “B” portion joined the two parallel mill structures. Tower “C,” the building that burned, had by 2009 deteriorated to the point that rehabilitation was considered impractical, city leaders said at the time.

The building had been stripped of electrical wiring, copper tubing associated with plumbing and even the copper flashing from the roof had been removed, according to one of the prospective buyers back in 2009. 

It had been the subject of  clean up actions by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, in the late 2000s, and the city had recently applied for funding to assess further hazards.

City Manager Steve Buck on Friday night said that officials knew there were underground storage tanks to the rear of the property. The city’s  most recent application for federal funding was denied.

According to a 2008 EPA report, the mill was cited in 2007 for improper storage of hazardous substances, among other hazards. 

The EPA in September 2008 was preparing a removal action, which it said was to include “the consolidation and segregation of all hazardous materials in and around the old mill building; decontamination and preparation of the disposal of all hazardous waste, barrels, and wall surfaces (and) excavation and disposal of contaminated soil and materials to an EPA-approved facility.”

There have been a number of smaller fires at the mill over the years, but none comparing to the magnitude of Friday night’s blaze.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.