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Fire claims last millExplosion in silo leads to loss of 180-year-old 'landmark' Humber River operation By BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA VAUGHAN -- The GTA lost a subtle and unimposing icon of its industrial history in the Canada Day fire that consumed the Hayhoe Mills. Buried in a quiet York Region residential community filling up with condos and seniors homes, the flour mill on the East Humber River in Vaughan has been producing flour since 1828 and, before it mostly burned down Tuesday, was the last surviving mill of more than 80 to operate at one time or another on the Humber River. What's more, for nearly 75 years, the 180-year-old mill was run by the local Hayhoe family who sold it in March 2007 to New Life Mills, a division of Manitoba's Parrish and Heimbecker Ltd. It employed about 20 people at the time of the fire. "It's probably one of the oldest businesses in the city of Vaughan. The community grew up around the mill," said Linda Jackson, the city's mayor, who lived near the Hayhoe family as a child. "It's been a landmark in our community for more than 150 years. It's employed hundreds of our residents ... It is very, very sad because it's quite a loss to our history," she said. No one was seriously injured in Tuesday's fire, which started at 7:30 p.m. when flour dust exploded inside one of the silos. Though it mostly succumbed to flames, the Hayhoe Mills did survive the flooding wrought by Hurricane Hazel in 1954, while many mills on the river did not. The age of some of the mill, though, made fighting the blaze a little more challenging, according to Vaughan's Fire Chief Greg Senay. "You've got large wooden joists in there that are 100 to 150 years old. I've got to tell you, they're dry and they burnt well for a long time," he said. With a bit of luck, Senay said, firefighters kept the fire from spreading to the mill's offices, filled with historic records and photos of the mill. Some firefighters even began taking old records and photos out of the offices Tuesday night in case the fire spread. "We drew a line in the sand, and said 'the fire is not going to get into their offices,' because that's where all their documents and archive material is. "For a 150-year-old mill, that's pretty important stuff," Senay said, noting several of his firefighters were once employees of the mill as summer students. Some residents worry the tract of valuable land will not be used for a new mill, but will be developed into condos. When asked about reported pressures on the Hayhoe family to sell the land to develop condos, a wife of one of the family's third-generation owners declined to comment.