The smoke had barely cleared when Barry Miller, owner of Miller's Millworks, Inc. in Bergen, said he was out shopping for some replacement tools and planning to return to an undamaged corner of this razed building and continue working. Miller's Millworks was destroyed when a fire started at 4:52 a.m. March 4. "I was there the night before and we have a mental checklist we go through before we leave. We turn off the air compressors, turn down the furnaces, turn off the lights, etc. Everything was off and taken care of when I left the night before around midnight," Miller said. No official cause for the fire has been announced. The building was declared a complete loss in one section, but a section that was added in December was separated from the original building by a fire wall and it was 75 percent spared from the blaze, he said. Miller, a woodworking hobbyist, started the business which makes high end furniture for the audio visual industry. "We make boardroom tables, conference tables, lecterns, podiums and many other items," he said. His business has blossomed and Millworks has 14 employees. In addition to the loss of revenue and the building itself, Miller said one of the hardest parts was losing that bit of family history. "The building was originally built in 1876 and for the better part of the 1900s it was operated by my uncles as a grain mill," he said. In 2000, Miller purchased the building and brought it back into the family. When asked what he was going to do next, Miller said, "We're coming back with a vengeance. I'm out buying tools right now and we are going to start the rebuilding process tomorrow (March 7)." Miller extended a heartfelt thank you to the community and to the firefighters. "I have people coming out of the woodwork to help me rebuild. I couldn't do this on my own." Miller hopes to have the building restored to match the historic look of the former structure and hopes to be fully operational by May. March 11, 2007 |
