A suspicious blaze earlier this week touched off another in a series of multi-alarm fires that have torn through a vacant textile mill on the north side of Graham’s municipal limits.
According to Graham’s fire department, this latest conflagration broke out within the Old Culp Weaving Mill at 300 East Parker Street sometime in the small hours on Tuesday. The fire was apparently well underway by the time firefighters arrived on the scene at 4:57 a.m. – just two minutes after the blaze was reported.
In addition to personnel from Graham’s fire department, this initial call drew engine companies from Burlington and the town of Haw River as well as the Faucette rural fire department. The extent of the blaze nevertheless prompted Graham’s fire department to issue a second alarm at 5:00 a.m., which attracted additional resources from Burlington, Elon, and Swepsonville.
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According to Graham’s fire department, it took fire crews nearly two hours to bring this blaze under control, although firefighters remained on the scene until 8:49 a.m. to extinguish some lingering hot spots. By the time all was said and done, the blaze had mobilized six fire departments as well as personnel from Graham’s police department, Alamance County EMS, the county’s emergency management office, and the office of the fire marshal. Meanwhile, firefighters from Mebane pitched in by handling Graham’s other emergency calls while its fire department was tied up along Parker Street.
Graham’s fire department notes that Tuesday’s inferno erupted in a part of the old mill that had suffered a four alarm fire in the fall of 2023.
“Since 2022, the property has been the site of three multi-alarm fires,” the department went on to elaborate in a news release. “The cause of the [latest] fire is considered suspicious and remains under joint investigation by the Graham fire department and the Graham police department.”
