TOPSHAM – A fire at a metal recycling facility that could be seen for miles around remained under investigation after firefighters left the scene Sunday.

No injuries were reported in the blaze, which drew firefighters from 20 towns.

The flames at Grimmel Industries recycling plant were confined to a two- to three-story-high pile of material to be recycled and a small building beside it. The fire was reported about 7 p.m. Saturday.

Topsham Fire Chief Robert Stiehler said the fire burned upholstery and other flammable material from mattresses, car parts and other materials from which metal was being removed for reprocessing.

Stiehler said some welding had been done at the site before the fire, but the cause of the blaze had not been determined by the time firefighters left the scene Sunday afternoon. During the fire, billows of smoke could be seen miles away.

“We could see it probably three miles away when we first got the call,” Ron Bisson of the Topsham Fire Department told WCSH-TV 6.

Firefighters had difficulty getting water from the nearby Androscoggin River to the fire, and a fleet of tankers had to bring water from surrounding towns and as far away as Boothbay to extinguish the flames, Stiehler said.

“It was a great use of our mutual aid system,” said the chief.

Grimmel Industries is in the former Pejepscot paper mill. Stiehler said that although there was some damage, most of the equipment used in the metal recycling operation was spared from the flames.