Photo: Paterson Retired Firefighters
A general alarm gutted the vacant Cliffside Dye Works at 99 Cliff St. in Paterson on April 8, 1980 - the fourth suspicious blaze in a year.
The 90-year-old mill was engulfed when firefighters arrived - and its walls partially collapsed as the flames raged.
"You just pour water on it," Deputy Fire Chief Solomon Reines told the Paterson News. "There is nothing to save."
Paterson was known as the "Silk City" for its bustling textile industry during the late 19th Century and early 20th Century.
However, textile firms went bust and empty mills went up in flames when the industry moved to the U.S. south, where wages were lower, and then offshore.
Box 123 as transmitted at 9:35 a.m. - and "it couldn't possibly get going like that unless it had some help," Fire Chief Harold Kane said.
