Fire crews in Southern California battle large fire at cold food storage facility

LOS ANGELES (NBC, KYMA) - A large fire erupted at a cold storage facility in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles Wednesday afternoon, prompting a shelter-in-place order.

Thick, black plumes of smoke could be seen billowing into the sky as fire crews worked to contain the blaze.

Fire officials say the fire broke out about 2:30 p.m. on the roof of the single-story lineage cold food storage facility.

They say the blaze reached an ammonia line, and that's when the shelter-in-place was ordered, but the ammonia has since been contained.

Firefighters quickly brought the fire under control after receiving help from several water-dropping helicopters, which are rarely used for building fires like the facility.

"The amount of fire that they had was overrunning the amount of water we were being able to put out on it and our firefighters had to evacuate the area for a few minutes there while it was off gassing. Simultaneously, the incident commander called for a shelter in place. Now the properties of ammonia, unless you're directly exposed to it, it's not going to be hazardous to you. It is going to cause irritation to your skin. So we called for a shelter in place."

Chief Jaime Moore, Los Angeles Fire Department

So far, there are no reports of injuries, or details about what may have caused the fire.