Massive fire destroys DeKalb County warehouse

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Firefighters are working to find out what caused a massive warehouse fire in DeKalb County.

NewsChopper2 was over the scene of the fire in Lithonia early Thursday morning on Channel 2 Action News This Morning.

Fire crews worked into the afternoon putting out hot spots at the NEDCO Company warehouse on Lithonia Industrial Boulevard.

The building was completely gutted with everything charred inside.

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The flames broke out just after 6 a.m. The building is located about 1,000 feet from a fire station.

Capt. Eric Jackson with DeKalb County Fire and Rescue said that the fire was advanced when firefighters arrived. He said their response time was less than one minute.

The warehouse is right next to a small strip mall. Channel 2's Audrey Washington spoke with one business owner who first spotted the flames.

"Well it happened so fast because when I got here, the entire building, I thought it was one building, but the full building was in flames,” said Sophia Eubanks.

Firefighters were able to put the flames out, but not before the roof suddenly collapsed.

“The roof started to collapse to where we had a collapse all throughout so we had a roof collapse and structural instability,” Jackson said.

It took firefighters nearly three hours to get the fire under control.

Firefighters say there was a lot of equipment inside the building and that may have helped fuel the flames.

No employees were inside of the building at the time of the fire. %INLINE%

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Cox Media Group