UPDATE: Crews have extinguished Rochester scrapyard fire

Crews are no longer battling a fire that started early Saturday evening at a scrapyard in Fulton County.

No one was injured in the fire, which started shortly after 5 p.m. at Rochester Iron and Metal in the 1300 block of East Lucas Street.

-----STORY AS UPDATED EARLY SUNDAY MORNING-----

Firefighters continue battling a massive fire at a Rochester scrapyard Sunday morning.

Flames broke out Saturday night at Rochester Iron and Metal in the 1300 block of East Lucas Street just after 5 p.m. Fulton County officials are encouraging people in the area to stay indoors, but said people can leave if they don't feel safe.

"There was concerns earlier that it might try to go down the railroad track," said Fulton County Sheriff Chris Sailors. "There's a railroad track that runs down this wooded area, but we've pretty well got trucks on all sides and lines on all sides and right now they're just trying to dig it out and get to the base of it."

Police officers are focused on controlling traffic around the scrapyard, because fire crews are often leaving to fill up their tanks. Two fill-up stations are open, so crews can get water to fight the fire. One is located at the fire station and the other is at the street department.

Emergency responders and people who work at Rochester Iron and Metal are working together to battle the flames.

"They seem to be holding up pretty well," Sheriff Sailors said. "It's like anything. It's a big adrenaline jump and as the night goes on, this is probably going to be an all nighter."

Crews are grateful of the public support. Many businesses donated food and water to first responders.

"That's appreciated because you know they're out here trying to work through that and probably a lot of them didn't get their evening meal so we appreciate that," Sheriff Sailors said.

Christina Green was at the fire. She drove in from Peru to make sure her uncle who lives right down the street is okay.

"I seen lots of smoke and I was worried about my family and I seen that there was fire and I'm just worried about everybody in Rochester," Green said. "I am scared for them and trying to get out away from it and do all that. Hopefully none of the smoke gets to them."

Employee Dustin Welch at Rochester Iron and Metal said they were shutting down for the evening and were getting ready to clock out.

"That's when I noticed the white smoke so I walked around to get a better look at it and realized that it was a car smoking," said Welch.

Welch said he then contacted his supervisor who advised him to get the fire hose with a coworker. He said it was about 10-20 feet too short.

"By the time he got out there and I got back over to where he was at I had already started seeing black smoke roll and starting to see the flames and I'm like oh boy this is going to be a long night," Welch said.

He said another employee called the fire department.

Welch has been working at the scrapyard since January of 2018.

"In that time I have worked here I have seen small fires, but they were small enough that we were able to get them out with the fire hoses here and if they got too big then we'd pull out the fire truck that they have sitting here," Welch said.

According to Welch the owner wants to open on Sunday but said it looks doubtful.

Investigators said it's too early to determine what caused the fire.