Teens Charged with Arson for Fire that Destroyed Historic Mill in Saratoga County, NY
Times Union, Albany, N.Y.
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Jun. 1—VICTORY — Two teenagers have been charged with starting the massive fire that destroyed the historic former Victory Mills on Saturday.
The teens, who are both 14, were charged Sunday with third-degree arson and second-degree criminal trespass, the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
"They are accused of intentionally damaging a building by starting a fire and of knowingly and unlawfully remaining in a building which was fenced in or otherwise enclosed in a manner designed to exclude intruders," the statement said. The children, a boy and a girl, were released to their parents.
The 14-year-old boy was arrested and charged on Saturday. The sheriff's office provided no other details about the case.
Firefighters from multiple departments responded to 42 Gates Ave. around 2:30 p.m. Saturday and found the building engulfed in flames. More than three hours later, the fire was under control.
Saratoga Town Supervisor Ian Murray, in a post on Facebook, called the fire "devastating," "intense and dangerous." He said the fire "has deeply impacted" the community and thanked firefighters for their work.
"To understand the weight of this moment: the mill is more than just a building. It's part of the very foundation of Victory," he said.
Murray added that its "towering presence has remained a symbol of our village's industrial legacy and resilience."
Tanker trucks at the scene were seen speeding away from the property as firefighters worked to fill them and bring water back to the site. Firefighters also filled up large rubber pools that were then used as a water source for two ladder trucks along the front of the mill on Gates Avenue and for one truck at the back of the mill. Three departments were also seen pumping water from nearby Fish Creek.
"The fire department has performed outstandingly, working tirelessly to contain the blaze. The village is currently focusing on ensuring public safety and mitigating potential hazards," Victory Mayor Corey Helwig wrote in a post on Facebook.
The largest portion of the building, which is made of concrete and old-growth timber, was built in 1918 and was "the culmination of the Saratoga Victory Manufacturing Company's milling operations that began on site almost 75 years earlier," according to a 2019 village of Victory report. After the textile business moved to Alabama in the 1920s, the building was repurposed for paper product production. It has been closed since 2000.
"The mill was the reason for the name, settlement, incorporation, growth and prosperity of the village," the report reads.
However, the mill was set to be torn down.
Redevelopment plans
In an interview Sunday, the village's mayor said that the exterior concrete structure was all that remained of the building and that demolition work would begin on Monday morning.
He said the village had been in the process of buying the mill from its current owner, Riverview Realty LLC, as part of a multimillion dollar redevelopment initiative backed by funding from the Empire State Development Corporation. The village would have been responsible for tearing down the building, but because Riverview still owns the structure, Helwig said the company will oversee the demolition.
"The property owner is going to get it on the ground, and then we're actually trying to expedite the process of the village taking ownership of it," Helwig said. "Nothing has changed in the plan going forward."
It was not immediately clear how much the village had agreed to pay for the mill. The most recent Saratoga County tax assessment rolls show the property has an assessed value of $415,000 and a market value of $691,667.
Helwig said that while the process to get community input on what to do with the site has yet to begin, he hopes the site can be redeveloped into housing for people 55 and older, as well as provide a home for new businesses. He hopes to connect the site to nearby trails that lead to the Philip Schuyler House and to build a park with a monument to the mill and the generations of people who labored there.
"Through tragedy and devastation, I think it's going to be a great benefit to the village," Helwig said.
Uri Kaufman, Riverview Realty LLC's principal, did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.
Six years ago, Kaufman was working with a Westchester County developer to convert the mill into "state of the art" apartments, as well as bringing in a brewery, according to the development plans. But Larry Regan of Regan Development Corp. told the Times Union Sunday in an email that it was difficult to get investors for the project because of the village's rural Saratoga County location. In a presentation to the Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency in March 2021, the project cost had increased to $68 million.
"The building was a spectacular structure," Regan wrote Sunday. "It just was in the wrong place for adaptive reuse purposes for housing."
'It's just always been there'
Michelle Vanarnum lives about two blocks from the former mill on Gates Avenue. Her husband, Leon, worked at the mill from 1976 until it closed in 2000. In 2002, she said, everything was cleaned out of it to prepare it for redevelopment. Several plans were introduced over the years, but none came to fruition, she said.
The village recently informed neighbors that the time had come for the mill to be razed and work was supposed to start sometime after July 4, Vanarnum said.
Despite it being an easy target for squatters over the years and a place for kids to have parties, she said that now that the mill is destroyed, she has mixed feelings.
"I don't know. It's just always been there, in the center of town," she said. "If someone came to visit and you had to give them directions, you always say 'go to the old mill' and then count the houses. Now it's just gone."
Lauren Stanforth contributed
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