RIVER ROUGE, Mich. -- Billows of thick, black smoke could be seen for miles on Tuesday after a fire engulfed an asphalt spill nearly the size of a football field in an industrial area southwest of Detroit.

The blaze at Michigan Marine Terminal in River Rouge was largely contained to its outdoor storage yard. Paving-grade asphalt ignited as workers cleaned a 70-square-yard area where the asphalt leaked from a nearby storage tank in May, manager Curt Robinson said. A roughly 100-gallon oil tank also exploded into the air during the fire.

Nearby resident Martin Eglar said he saw a lot of black smoke coming from the park at about 9:15 a.m. and then he heard a large explosion.

No injures were reported.

The cause of the fire wasn't immediately known. Investigators were interviewing contractors who were cleaning up the asphalt before the fire ignited.

The facility is in the middle of an industrial area near the Detroit River that includes chemical refineries, steel plants and other facilities. Hazardous materials crews, environmental cleanup workers and other emergency personnel responded to the scene.

"They got it under control real quick, which is good, because if it would have spread it could have been way worse than what it was," said onlooker Rico Eady.

The fire was contained to the yard where it started and required about 1,500 gallons of foam to extinguish, River Rouge Police and Fire Chief Robert Alderman said. A few small foundry operations were evacuated because bits of aluminum sheeting from the asphalt storage tank blew into the air.

"The only thing we could do was control it," he said. "It was a matter of spraying enough foam to knock it down."

Deanne Belcher, 20, lives near the area and watched the rising dark smoke from about a quarter-mile away.

"I'm not too concerned because it's not gasoline," she said. "There is a concern because of all the smoke."

She said people near the area are used to living around refineries and factories, and accidents like these aren't uncommon.