A three-alarm fire broke out Thursday morning 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 Crews respond to fire at West Allis buildingThe West Allis Fire Department responded to the blaze at the building near South 53rd and West Rogers streets just after 10:30 a.m., which has been under construction for approximately two years, according to a release from the fire department.There, firefighters found a fire in the roof, and due to the conditions of the fire, the incident was escalated to a three-alarm response, prompting assistance from neighboring agencies. 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."Officials said everyone on-site was evacuated and that no injuries were reported. 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.Its about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for TMJ4 on your device.Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.Report a typo or error ...read more read less