By Joe Johnson
Athens-Clarke County firefighters spent the early morning hours Monday extinguishing a fire on the abandoned property of the former Puritan Cordage Mills cotton mill on Macon Highway near Puritan Lane.
The former mill, which sits on the banks of McNutt Creek before it empties into the Middle Oconee River already had largely been destroyed by fire in May 2015.
A passerby called 911 at about 11:41 p.m. Sunday to report that one of the few remaining buildings was burning according to Mark Melvin, assistant chief of the Athens-Clarke County Fire and Emergency Services Department.
Local firefighters mounted a defensive attack on the fire from a ladder truck that staged on a nearby roadway and an Oconee County Fire Rescue unit responded to assist, Melvin said.
The building that caught fire was destroyed Melvin said, though a couple smaller structures remained standing.
Firefighters continued to search for and extinguish remaining hot spots into the afternoon.
The cause of the fire was being investigated, the assistant fire chief said.
One firefighter was injured, sustaining a minor laceration, Melvin said.