BATON ROUGE – Firefighters spent all of Wednesday morning at the scene of a massive warehouse fire.

The blaze destroyed United Millworks, a custom wood framing shop, off Monterrey Boulevard. The business is located along a street of warehouses at the corner of Mammoth and W Perdue Drive.

The fire was reported around 2 a.m. by someone who lives on the street over who told firefighters, they saw smoke and glowing flames but could not isolate an address until they walked down the street and saw flames shooting from the roof.

When the first fire truck arrived on the scene, the Baton Rouge Fire Department said flames were so large, they called for backup. At one point, firefighters were told not to go into the building because the roof was collapsing.

The building is a total loss, the fire department said in a news release.

Fire crews battled the blaze until the sun came up.

The business owner, said the business had been busy recently with work related to flood rebuilding and the business itself was on the rebound after the warehouse was flooded in August.

Thuan Nguyen said he is used to overcoming adversity. He escaped Vietnam decades ago and now has to rebuild his business that he worked so hard to establish.

Today, Nguyen and the rest of his family were grateful for the firefighters who worked so tirelessly overnight.

"They are my heroes," Nguyen said.

Fire investigators said the blaze was caused by a malfunction in the building's electrical panel.

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