Authorities say they have started investigating the cause of a massive fire that destroyed seven acres of the Blue Grass Livestock Marketing Group's stockyards in Lexington, Ky., that was home to the group's 70-year-old beef cattle auction business.
It's not clear when the fire started, but officials say they were alerted to the flames around 2:20 p.m. and quickly called for backup as the smoke billowed through nearby streets, reported the Associated Press. The incident was a spectacle behold as the smoke darkened the skies for miles.
At least 120 firefighters battled the blaze Saturday afternoon and by its end not only were the stockyards destroyed, but nearby businesses and vehicles were caught in the blaze and destroyed as well.
Interim Fire Chief Harold Hoskins said the size of the blaze was almost inevitable due to the state of the stockyards, which he compared to "a standing lumber yard."
"It's just a lot of wood, a lot of combustibles. Its' been here forever, so it's dried out and it's ready to burn," Hoskins said, according to CBS News. "The wind is what caused it to cross the street."
Now that the fire is out of the way and the situation has stabilized, investigators are working to determine what caused the fire - a development that follows statement issued from a spokesperson for Lexington Fire Department who said on Sunday that it was too early to determine the cause of the fire, according to the Associated Press.
Officials will be interviewing nearby business owners and others.
