POULTNEY, Vt. (AP) – A slate mill and the equipment it held were destroyed in a fire.

Fire Chief William Jones said firefighters were slowed getting to the Friday morning firefighter by snowy roads, although he said he did not think that was a factor in the loss of the building.

The wooden building was owned by Robert Williams of Castleton was a complete loss, Jones said. It was empty when the fire started.

“It’s just him and his son who work there, and they hadn’t come in for work yet,” he said.

Jones said he thought the fire was started by the mill’s wood stove, which had been left burning overnight.

“It overheated and caught the wall on fire,” he said. “When we arrived, the building was fully engulfed.”

The call came in at 8:30, and Jones said slippery roads doubled the department’s response time.

“We had to go extra slow with the roads the way they were,” Jones said. “We didn’t get above 35 – normally, we’d be doing 50.”

It did not help, Jones said, that the mill was at the top of a long, steep driveway.

“I’d say it was three-quarters to a mile straight back,” he said. “Most of the tankers we had, we had to put chains on. Luckily, there’d been no vehicles in the driveway, so we had traction in the snow. Once we put two trucks up there, the road almost became impassable.”

Jones estimated it took firefighters an extra six minutes to get to the blaze and he did not think that would have made a difference in saving the building.

Jones said a great deal of equipment was lost with the building.

“There was a forklift, milling equipment like block saws and tools,” he said. “I’d say damages were maybe $200,000 to $300,000, but that’s just guessing.”

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Information from: Rutland Herald, http://www.rutlandherald.com/

AP-ES-12-10-05 1404EST