An old mattress store in Inkster went up in flames Thursday morning.

The flames gutted the Motor City Mattress building on Michigan Avenue, but the store was empty and had been up for sale for about a year.

Inkster Fire Chief Mark Hubanks said the fire was reported at about 9 a.m. by a contractor who was in the area picking up supplies.

"It's a large building, a lot of square footage. So, there's a time when you go from offense to defense. This building was so fully involved on arrival there was very little offense, we almost immediately had to go to defense," Hubanks said. "In an empty building you don't just want to start sending people in there with a building that is structurally you feel is unsafe."

He said the fire isn't being called suspicious and its cause is still being investigated.

The blaze forced the closure of Michigan Avenue between Inkster and John Daly Road.

"I saw it and the smoke was so thick it was all the way down to the Fire Department," witness Zella Carter said. "I was that thick. You could not see anything."

Firefighters from Wayne, Westland, Garden City and Dearborn helped put out the flames.