UPDATE: Fire Burns the Water Company

About 116 firefighters quickly doused a fire in a 100-by-200-foot corrugated metal building causing $640,000 in damage at in the 9400 block of Mason Avenue in Chatsworth Tuesday.

The fire, which could be seen from the 118 Freeway according to KNX radio, broke out at about 10:30 a.m., said Matt Spence of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Firefighters say the fire was burning through the roof when they arrived, and all they could do was surround and drown it.

It sent a plume of smoke over the western San Fernando Valley. Chatsworth Patch readers Raffe and William G. Stewart-Eddins saw the smoke and rushed to the scene with their cameras. Firefighters extinguished the flames in about a half-hour.

• See also KNBC4: Crews Knock Down Fire at Chatsworth Business
• See also LAFD: 'Big Water' Saves Big Water Company in the Valley

The fire burned inside the metal building at the Arrowhead complex, with stacks of what appeared to be boxes of bottled water burning in a garage-type storage area, Spence said.

There were no injuries reported. The damage was still under investigation Tuesday night, Spence said, but was estimated at $140,000 to the structure and $500,000 to the contents.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

-- City News Service contributed to this report.