NASHUA, N.H. --
A pre-dawn fire burned at a vacant building in Nashua early Saturday morning that fire officials have deemed suspicious.
Shortly after 4:30 a.m., firefighters were called to the former Mohawk Tannery building at 66 Fairmount St. A pile of debris and discarded building material ignited. Crews gained control of the fire within hours.
Nashua Deputy Fire Chief Michael O'Brien said the structure was too dangerous for firefighters to enter.
"We were very concerned with some of the materials that were used in the tanning process at that time, and the damage that was done by the previous fires on that building. So, therefore, we did an exterior attack," O'Brien said.
The Nashua fire marshal was called to investigate. No injuries were reported.
Surrounded by fence and barbed wire, investigators said there's no reason for a fire to start at the building accidentally.
"At this time, with no utilities in the structure, we consider the fire to be suspicious in origin," O'Brien said.
On Saturday morning, neighbors thought they might have to endure strange and potentially hazardous debris landing on their lawns for a second time after a fire in October 2007 burned much larger with flames shooting into the sky. That fire remains an open case.
"It's kind of concerning that, you know, this keeps happening, and they're not actually pushing the building over," said Josh Wilder, who thinks the tannery should be demolished.
The fire department said teens and vagrants are known to enter the property.
"We wish that they would not ... Any parents in the neighborhood that may know that children are in and around the place, they should discourage that," O'Brien said. "The building has suffered several fires in it. At this point, it's a dangerous structure as far as anybody entering it."
Long since abandoned, the tannery is a federal Superfund cleanup site. It produced tanned hides for leather from 1924 to 1984, when it closed, leaving behind a vacant site and contaminated soil. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiated toxic cleanup on the site in 2000.
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