An oil fire in Lansing during the Tuesday afternoon rush hour stopped traffic and sent smoke into the air that was visible for several miles.

The fire at Spartan Oil Corp., 419 Spring St., in Lansing, severely damaged a 4,000-square-foot motor oil storage facility. A 2,000-square-foot maintenance building was also damaged.

No one was hurt, although one employee was in the storage facility when the fire started, said Bruce Odom, public information officer for the Lansing Fire Department.

Odom said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

Spartan Oil Corp. employees on the scene declined to comment.

With the aide of two trucks from Lansing's Capital City Airport equipped with fire retardant foam, the Lansing Police Department attempted to distinguish the burning oil for several hours.

Standing at the edge of the police tape Tuesday, 23-year-old John Krohn of Lansing said he ignored the flames at first.

Krohn was watching television in his house two blocks away when he heard the sirens.

When the sirens hadn't stopped 20 minutes later, he walked to the warehouse.

He pointed to the smoldering warehouse, where flames reappeared throughout the afternoon.

The bright green shell of a forklift was all that was visible in the building's frame when the smoke cleared.

"There was a poof, not a boom and then a black roll of smoke," Krohn said. "But I think I missed the worst of it."

Odom said the explosions were from propane cylinders stored outside the building.

More than an hour after an employee at the Amoco station across the street reported the fire at 4:04 p.m., dark smoke and flames continued to reappear.

One man on the opposite side of the police tape waved people back, saying there was a chance of an explosion.

The tall oil storage tanks remained bright white with water and foam pooled around them.

The department soaked the tanks so they'd stay cool and wouldn't explode, Odom said.

The fire was contained at 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday.