A structure fire early Tuesday morning halted traffic on Cherry Avenue in East Long Beach for about an hour-and-a-half.
After receiving a call at about 4:02AM, Long Beach Fire Department officials responded to the scene of an industrial fire at an unoccupied alloy metal processing plant in the 3200 block of Cherry Avenue, according to LBFD spokesman Brian Fisk.
Fisk said one of the furnaces exploded, and arriving firefighters found heavy smoke coming from the roof with very little fire.
Upon entry inside the building, units discovered a fire, which they were able to extinguish within five minutes, Fisk noted.
Units remained on the scene for the next several hours to cool the furnaces with water. No one was inside the building or around it when the fire occured, so there were no injuries incurred.
Long Beach Police Department officials assisted with traffic control and shut down Spring Street to Wardlow and the Cherry North off ramp from the Northbound 405 freeway from about 4:55AM to 6:27AM.
{FG_GEOMAP [33.8155209,-118.1676162] FG_GEOMAP}