ATHOL — A three-alarm fire leveled the former ND Cass Co. toy factory Thursday night.
At around 7:30 p.m., firefighters responded to the three-story building on Lumber Street, and found the structure fully engulfed in flame, according to Terry Dun, public information officer for the Northwest Incident Management Team.
Dun said the fire in the 250-by-80-foot building posed a threat to at least three nearby houses, the vinyl siding of which partially sagged from heat exposure. The fire spread to a nearby garage on the Cass property, but did not extend to the nearby houses, the closest of which is within 100 feet from the garage. Firefighters soaked those houses with water to keep them from going up in flames.