A fire in Gaston County continued to burn Monday, more than 12 hours after it started.

Firefighters were called to Gatza Marble around 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

The man who called 911 lives near the building and said the smell of smoke woke him up.

Other witnesses said within 30 minutes, the thick smoke they saw pouring from the building erupted into flames.

Firefighters said a tank that contained some kind of flammable resin caught, and that helped the fire spread quickly.

Firefighters spent hours dumping water on the massive flames, but by mid-morning, all they could do was let it burn itself out.

By 9:30 a.m., Eyewitness News saw some fire investigators inside the still-smoking rubble, working to figure out how the fire started.

One witness who said the sound of fire trucks rushing to the scene woke him up described hearing an explosion at one point.

“It just sounded like it made a big boom, like something had caught on and exploded, you know,” Bill Lovelace said. “It wasn't knocking over walls or anything, but that’s when I started seeing flames instead of black and grey smoke.”

Officials haven’t said what caused the fire.