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A towering pile of shredded vehicles that burned and unleashed a plume of heavy smoke over Redwood City, Palo Alto and Menlo Park for nearly a day was finally extinguished early Sunday morning, a Redwood City spokesman reported.

According to spokesman Malcolm Smith, the two-alarm fire at the Sims Metal scrap yard at 699 Seaport Blvd., first reported by employees shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday, burned a five-story-high pile of shredded automobiles into the night before being brought under control at 2:30 a.m.

The fire was declared extinguished at 6:39 a.m., Smith said.

Seaport Boulevard has been reopened to auto traffic and though residents may still see smoke in the area at times, there is no cause for concern, Smith added.

Firefighters are still on scene today to mop up any hot spots, Smith said. Fire investigators will try to determine the cause of the blaze when the area cools off, he said.

The fire did not spread beyond the pile of scrap metal and plastic, the base of which measured 100 feet by 200 feet, according to Smith.

No one was injured by the fire, which is not considered suspicious at this time, Smith said. A damage estimate was not yet available.

According to Smith, the business had a similar, though smaller, fire, a few months ago.

— Bay City News Service