Early the morning of Dec. 2, a fire broke out at the historic Kent mill that has reduced much of the structure to rubble.
The Kent Fire Department said they received the call around 8:45 of smoke issuing from the building. They quickly arrived. Three minutes later, an explosion rocked the building, Chief Bill Myers said.
As of Friday night they did not know what caused the explosion, but flour dust is explosive.
Late Friday night, the owners of GRAZERS Restaurant in Kent, Stacey Lasher and Carl Bauer, submitted a video they took of the explosion from the third floor of their building across the street. (GRAZERS is closed Dec. 3 as crews continue to work on the fire.)
In the video you can see a firefighter walking across the roof and turning to run as a loud boom sounds and a fireball shoots from a window nearby. A second story front wall showered bricks down on North Water Street, leaving a gaping hole in the facade of the Kent mill.
Watch the video here with your sound on:
Footage taken by GRAZERS Manager Tracie Espenschied from the 3rd floor of the GRAZERS Restaurant building.
Ben Wolford is the editor and publisher of The Portager.
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