FRYEBURG – Fire destroyed the former Saunders Brothers Mill on Fair Street Thursday afternoon.

Early reports indicate that at least one man was in the vacant complex when fire broke out around noontime. There were no reports of injuries.

Fire crews from at least six towns rushed to the scene battling fires that were in at least four buildings simultaneously.

Thick toxic black smoke made firefighting efforts difficult in the buildings that still housed some wooden products, paints and other materials from the time the mill was closed in 2008.

The contents of the building had been auctioned off two weeks ago. A man, who declined to idenitfy himself but whom police identified as an Oxford businesman, was in the building at the time the fire broke out getting some items he had successfully bid on in the auction. The man said he was insulated from the fire but opened the door into another section of the mill where fire was udnerway and ran out.

The building and land is currently on the market.

The State Fire Marshall’s offfice was at the scene investigating.