WEST ALLIS, Wis. — A fire broke out Thursday at the construction site of a future West Allis Public Works facility, sending a large plume of dark smoke into the sky that was visible from across the area.
WATCH: Fire breaks out at West Allis Public Works building construction site
Multiple fire departments responded to the blaze at the building near South 53rd and West Rogers streets, which has been under construction for approximately two years. West Allis Fire Department Assistant Chief Armando Suarez del Real confirmed the fire was still active at the time of this report and that firefighters were still working to extinguish it.
Suarez del Real said there is no current concern the fire will spread to neighboring buildings or nearby residents and that no injuries have been reported.
A nearby business owner, Javier Arce, said he witnessed the fire from the start.
"It was about two hours ago we saw a black cloud just coming out from a little part of the building. I told my son, 'Hey, this doesn't look normal.' But after that it just went crazy," Arce said. "The smoke just kept rising. The flames started to come out and they were, they were strong, man. They were pretty aggressive flames. So I'm glad they were able to contain everything."
Arce, who has operated his business on Rogers since 2012, said people near the scene were advised to evacuate their buildings as the fire grew.
"It was a little nerve-wracking. We got some calls telling people that we should actually vacate, leave our building, but we knew that there was some space in between," Arce said. "I'm just glad the smoke kind of kept going up and it didn't fill our area in any way. So it could have been worse. So thank God it was contained."
Arce also described the air quality near the scene.
"Some of the workers actually sat on our steps at our shop, so we went outside for a little bit and it was pretty toxic," Arce said. "So we had everything closed at our shop, but you could still smell it through the vents."
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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