Firefighters on Thursday responded to an Arkadelphia scrap yard to battle what was reported as a large fire.

The scrap yard, L&W Recycling, is located at 355 Walnut St. The contents of a box trailer caught fire during the loading process, according to Fire Chief Jason Hunt. “They were loading scrapped cars into the trailer when something ignited,” Hunt said. “As they were crushing the cars to fit in the trailer, something caught on fire.”

As fire officials were en route, a scrap yard employee used heavy equipment to unload some of the burning vehicles so firefighters could more easily extinguish the flames. This move gave the appearance of more than one blaze.

The fire department was summoned to the scene at 3:28 p.m. and had the blaze under control within minutes of arrival.