Federal aid sought for mill complex razed by fire

UXBRI DGE -- The owner of a renovated mill complex destroyed by fire over the weekend said he hopes to rebuild.

Co-owner Leonard "Cappy" Fournier also expressed concern for the 65 small-business owners and more than 300 employees displaced by the blaze.

"Most of them have their lives in that place," Fournier said to reporters outside Uxbridge Town Hall yesterday. "I wish I could snap my fingers and have a place to put them."

Governor Deval Patrick yesterday asked the federal government's Small Business Administration to consider offering financial assistance to the businesses. State and federal officials will open a disaster-assistance center at the town hall today.

No one was injured in the fire at the Bernat Mill complex, which broke out at 4:30 a.m. Saturday. A cause has not been determined. Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said the eight-alarm blaze continued to burn yesterday in areas of the mill where the roof collapsed, and called the damage to the 400,000-square-foot building "extensive."

"Eighty percent of the building was involved in the fire," he said.

The mill complex was an eclectic mix of shops and retail businesses that many saw as a regional success story.

Fournier and his partner, Jack Tweed, bought the abandoned wool mill several years ago and renovated it.

Lance Salmonsen , president of the Uxbridge Business Association, said he was compiling a list of relocation options.

"We want you to stay here in the town," he said at a meeting with business owners and Fournier. "You're a huge asset to the community."

Corinna Taylor, owner of Bernat Mill Antiques, said she lost everything in the fire.

She had been a tenant in the building for two years and said she liked working there so much she named her store after the complex. She said she also felt the loss of community.

"When my husband and I get up tomorrow, I have no work to go to," she said. "And I still have my bills to pay."

Bill Conrad, a machinist at East Coast Mechanical Design, said he would visit the disaster assistance center today to apply for unemployment benefits.

His son was renting an artist's studio in the building. He said he felt lost after hearing about the fire.

"I just don't know what's going to happen," he said.