Baltimore roofing supply warehouse caught in large fire and heavy smoke

A large fire with smoke seen all the way downtown broke out at a roofing supply warehouse in Southeast Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon.

Firefighters responded to a three-alarm fire shortly before 3 p.m. at Alliance Exterior Construction, in the 4200 block of Eastern Avenue, where heavy smoke was billowing from the roof.

"You could actually see this from all around downtown. Coming out of downtown, we could all see it," said Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace.

Baltimore firefighters battle warehouse fire

Wallace said the fire in the 50x150 square-foot building escalated quickly. Firefighters attacked and contained the fire from the outside due to structural stability concerns.

"They made a tactical decision not to enter this building. This is a metal building, an older building," Wallace said. "So structural stability given the amount of fire that was found when they arrived there."

There are some business-related hazardous materials in the warehouse, including acetylene, propane, gasoline, a waste oil tank, and adhesives. 

Those hazardous materials were contained and not breached, which may have prevented even more destruction.

"They are still present inside, but they are under control. That's a huge factor for us," Wallace said.

There were no injuries reported to firefighters or occupants in the building.

Around 7 p.m., Wallace said the fire was contained, but there were still some hot spots that would flare up.

"There are still some deep-seated materials in there that are burning, so occasionally you will kind of see the smoke flare up a little bit, then it will die back down," Wallace said.

Fire officials said the fire appears to be accidental, but investigators are working with the Baltimore Police Department arson investigators to determine the cause.

Witnesses react to heavy smoke

A woman told CBS News Baltimore she was sitting at a bus stop when the smoke from the fire hit her.

"It was gray smoke. It smelled really bad. My friend started coughing; it was bad. We smelled it all the way down the street," she said.