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' Pwd OUTDOOR' POWER EQUIPMENT Hwy #7, Georgetown (ores ms the 905-877-0314 hool) ACHILLES in Acton What's Inside Heather Ellis, dressed in typical Dutch costume of the past, en- joyed her trip to Hol- land, Belgium and France with the | Georgetown Children's Chorus. See more pho- tos on Page 10. Glen McKenzie, right, was. pre-} sented with donor awards by the Red Cross at the general meeting, Story and photo on Page' 14. Entertainment Trinity United's Ham Dinner Mother's Day was the mother and daughter duet of Lois Matton and Jane, 5. More on Page 11. at Super skipper Sebas- tian Mena Diaz was among Robert Little skippers taking part in Beardmore plant rava Clouds of black smoke billow into heavens By FRANCES NIBLOCK The New Tanner Part of Acton's proud leather heritage -- a number of the buildings at the old Beardmore Tannery - burned to the ground on Tuesday in a fire of unknown origins. The raging blaze, fuelled by the century-old wooden building, created thick, black, acrid smoke that could be seen from the 401. About 11:15 Tuesday morning a plume of smoke was seen at the western end of the 23-acre abandoned property, now owned by Ma- ple Leaf Foods. By the time Acton volunteer fire fighters arrived on the scene, at least three inter-connected build- ings, formerly offices, a boiler room and leather processing departments, were fully engulfed. "on the boarded up, aban- doned site when the fire be- gan, no one was injured in the blaze that burned out of control for several hours be- fore being tamed about 2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon. Several firefighters were treated at the scene for heat exhaustion, which Fire Chief Bill Cunningham said was their biggest concern. The size of the facility caused a few problems for firefighters who were wor- ried that the fire would spread through underground tunnels, many of them car- rying pipes lined with asbes- tos, to adjacent buildings. There was also concern that the fire would spread to some hydro transformers filled with cancer-causing PCBs on the property, but the storage site was never in any danger. Halton Hills Fire Chief Bill Cunningham described the fire as a "blazing inferno" when they arrived at the scene and said that it would have been a risk to life to do anything other than an out- side attack. "Normally, we would take to do that," Cunningham ex- plained in an interview at the scene late Tuesday afternoon. "We had to re-position our (water) streams and do a cut- off at the eastern end of the building. That was a bit of an educated gamble because in these old buildings we don't know if the fire doors are closed and it' such a maze. But with a lot of hard work and water, we did it." At the height of the blaze 32 fire fighters from both the Acton and Georgetown sta- tions were on the scene and for the first time in a dozen years the Mutual Aid pro- gram kicked in with Milton fire fighters manning the Halton Hill stations. Cunningham said they called the Ministry of Envi- ronment to deal with air quality issues and the poten- tial contamination of Black an engineer to the site to deal with environmental concerns and they are working with Town staff to mitigate the flow (of water) from the property into Black Creek. They've closed some valves that drain into the creek and are building a weir or dam to contain the water," See FIRE, Page 2 3 il cmanination of Bik) arena' --_ "Maple Leaf Foods sent. The he structural condition of the Town-owned Prospect Park arena, information crucial to the Acton Agricultural Soci- ety's attempts to save the building, should be known by the end of the month. A structural engineer, the same one that has inspected the building for the past dec- ade, carried out another in- BUILDING STRUCTURES are bent and fighters continue to douse the flame with a ol PAUL SIMMONS, PARTS MANAGER 29" 357 Queen Street '°)853-0200 Halton Hills (Acton) °5)453-8965 ged by fire a a twisted at the mercy of the fire as fire- showers of water. -- Angela Tyler photo. More photos on Page 7 Tuesday and his will seal the fate of the former ice rink and community centre. The Society convinced Town council to delay demo- lition of the building until after this September's fall fair, to give it time to come up with a viable business plan to use it for community services and sports, other % JOINING THE CELEBRATION: Mayor Marilyn Serjeantson (centre) joins Acton Year, the Legion Terrace Committee, in celebration on Rotary Club Citizens of the S on report If the building is salvage- able, the Society wants Town council to reallocate money budgetted to demolish the arena and instead use it for repairs, along with the Soci- ety's $80,000 nest egg. Paul Stover, the Town's Manager of Facilities, said the reports from the past 10 years have showed continued deterioration of the building. "Knowing that we were building a new arena we tried to get by with the absolute minimum in repairs over the years, so any repairs that were done were stop gap," Stover explained in an inter- view on Thursday. Stover said he's waiting for a written report from the fire department concerning the failure last month of the main sprinkler valve and how it might affect the Soci- ety use of the building this fall. Acton councillor Norm Elliott, who hopes the struc- tural engineer's report is fa- vourable, said that the Town is in an awkward position. oma Rope for Heart. an interior attack and try to Friday. Left to right, Ed Footitt, Gord McCutcheon, John Hoare and Mike Mat- che ton ce Sia. = Ore PE haat 1a stop the fire but it wasn't safe tocks. - Angela Tyler photo See OLD, Page 3 '98 Corolla VE ¢ Air Conditioning oars} *5 Speed Manual Transmission * AM/FM Cassette Stereo * 60/40 Fold Down Rear Seat * Intermittent Wipers * Automatic Transmission ¢ AM/FM Cassette Stereo * Dual Airbags * 1.8 litre DOHC 120 H.P. Engine 4.8% no limit financing for up es Model BR12EP-B CATO penn crons (7 PR ORGET OWN TOVOTAISALEST SS) sro Oo $ panes: & SeeacinonD 15 MOUNTAINVIEW RD. 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