Rating:

0.0 (0 votes)

TUCSON - Crews with the Tucson Fire Department needed a little help Monday night to fight a massive fire. They asked Tucson Water to boost the water supply.

The call came in around 7:30 p.m. from warehouse just south of Downtown. It ultimately became a two-alarm call.

As of Tuesday at midnight, firefighters were still working to put out the flames and determine what started the fire.

Neighbor Clarissa Ruiz describes the scene: "Big huge flames, a big cloud of orange, that's what I saw."

Many captured the flames on their cell phones, even firefighters are amazed by its size.

"When we got to the scene it looked like a volcano. There was fire as far as the eye can see," said Captain Barrett Baker with the Tucson Fire Department.

To tackle the flames, their plan is to surround it and drown it.

Baker said, "We had to decide, get a 360 degree view of the building from multiple areas, and pick the best area where the fire is the heaviest. Put your aerials up and start hitting it from that area."

Officials say, by all accounts, the building is abandoned. It used to be Don's Frozen Food Locker.

Ruiz says the empty building often housed the homeless, "I don't know if there were people there, so that was my concern when I first saw the flames."

So far, no injuries have been reported.

But firefighters say until the flames are out, and they can go inside, they won't know for sure.

Damage is estimated at $500-thousand dollars.