News 12 at 11, September 27, 2008

Augusta, Ga. --- A piece of history up in flames.

"It just went up. Boom! Just like that!" Wyvonnie Cook said.

Wyvonnie Cook has had a front porch view of the old Southern Milling Company for 35 years. And now, that view has changed.

"I went in the house because it was just coming this way so much. And then it got so hot out here," Cook said.

Hot, because the mill burned for hours Friday night. Augusta firefighters spent the morning putting out hot spots at the mill. They say it's dangerous because some of the walls are not stable. The condition of the building had a lot to do with how they tackled the fire.

"You cannot put people inside it. So you're basically trying to put it out with the ariel ladders, so that makes it hard to contain," Battallion Chief John Clark said.

Augusta historian Erick Montgomery sees more than a burned out building here, he's sees a part of Augusta's past.

"It needed to be restored. But it was one of those interesting, kind of unusual landmarks that had a lot of potential that people would have really liked, had we been able to do something with it," Erick Montgomery said.

Montgomery says Southern Milling Company started off as a crescent mill on the Augusta canal. It was a grain mill that made feed for livestock. Parts of that building go back to the 1850s. Historic Augusta even had the mill on their endangered properties list.

Even though the historic view has changed for Cook, she's glad no homes or businesses were damaged by the fire.

"That fire was so high and big, you could see it anywhere," Cook said.

Battallion Chief Clark says they are still investigating the cause of the fire.