Large plumes of black smoke pouring into the sky Monday evening alerted police officers to a fire at a scrap metal business in downtown Dayton.

Firefighters responded to the 2000 block of East First Street at the Franklin Iron and Metal Corp. Monday afternoon after officers in the area saw smoke.

The officers reported seeing the smoke at about 5:50 p.m. and the fire was found on one end of a 100- to 150-foot scrap pile, dispatch records said.

Firefighters remained on site until about six hours later when the last crew left around 11:40 p.m., said Lt. Brad French of the Dayton Fire Department.

During that time, the lieutenant said that firefighters used heavy water application to put out the fire, while heavy machinery operators for the business pulled apart the pile to help crews get better access to the fire.

French said that the cause of the fire is undetermined, but that the pile contained “mixed combustables.”

During the fire, the Dayton Fire Department monitored environmental conditions and contacted the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency and the Dayton Water Department’s Division of Environmental Management to tell them what happened.

Daniel Susco is a Dayton-area native and staff writer covering breaking news throughout the greater Dayton area. He holds a journalism degree from Ohio University and began writing for the Dayton Daily News, Hamilton Journal-News, Springfield News-Sun, and Dayton.com in 2019.