LAPORTE ― Firefighters from multiple agencies worked through the night to gain control of a blaze that destroyed a several-hundred-foot-long vacant factory building in LaPorte’s downtown area.

Flames from the former American Rubber plant at 315 Brighton St. lit up the night sky and were still visible after sunrise.

Kellyanne Harwood of 414 Brighton St. said she was getting ready for bed when she heard the approaching sirens of numerous emergency responders after midnight.

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Harwood said she looked out her window and saw heavy smoke coming from the building, then flames once she made the short walk to the scene.

“I never seen anything like that in my life," she said. "They were just blasting the flames with water, and the flames just kept getting higher and coming out of the building.”

Harwood said she also heard what sounded like mild explosions.

“It was scary,” she said.

Firefighters were also focused on making sure the flames didn’t spread to a water tower in the middle of the horseshoe-shaped complex in the residential neighborhood along the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks.

Josh Montemayor owns nearby Mickey’s Bar on Tipton St.

He witnessed parts of the fire-ravaged building cave in after learning about the blaze from customers walking into his establishment and going to the scene.

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“The building started collapsing on the front end," he said. "Just now on the back end it started collapsing.”

Montemayor also complimented firefighters for keeping the fire contained to the property.

Ricky Probst of 507 Brighton St. said the size of the fire caught him by surprise after social media notified him about the blaze.

“There were flames coming out the windows and everything else in there,” he said.

Firefighters from LaPorte and other surrounding agencies, including Center Township, Coolspring Township and Kankakee Township responded to the fire.

So far, no indications have been given on the cause of the blaze.

But Fire Chief Andy Snyder said the building was being used to store plastic bottles containing hand sanitizer.

He said there were numerous pallets of hand sanitizer inside the structure, and because the hand sanitizer is alcohol-based, that was a factor in the fire spreading so rapidly.

"There were skids of it," Snyder said. "There were skids stacked on each other, and they were for the length of the building in a couple of different bays."

Snyder also said the water tower did not appear to be damaged.

He said the heat was so intense it could have melted the steel on the tower, but the metal was kept cool from constantly being sprayed with water.

LaPorte County Building Commissioner Mike Polan said people going by to see what's left of the fire and the damage were advised to stay at least 30 feet away from the structure to avoid possible injury should other parts of the building collapse.

Several people who live nearby claimed seeing people breaking into the structure in recent years.

Snyder said whether any homeless people were living there has not been confirmed.

"That's something the investigation will have to look into as they move forward," he said.