The fire was reported at about 1:20 p.m. Sunday at Sims Metal Management, a metal recycling facility located in the 600 block of Seaport Road.
Seaport was shut down for most of the afternoon as fire crews continued their attack.
There was not much concern that the fire would spread, so the call never rose above a single alarm fire.
But crews had a tough time dousing the flames. That's because it's burning in a scrap metal pile and it's not very easy to get to the core of the fire.
"They're using cranes to lift the metal off the pile to get to the center of the pile where the fire is," said Walter Montti with the Redwood City Police Department.
Because the smoke was blowing in a southwesterly direction, officials first issued a shelter-in-place warning for Palo Alto. They're asking residents who can smell the smoke to stay inside, close windows, and turn off circulation systems like air conditioning that can bring air in from the outside.
Officials later issued a health advisory for Redwood City and Menlo Park due to the heavy smoke.
Police have also given local hospitals the heads up, just in case people start showing up complaining of respiratory problems.
No injuries have been reported.
Though the fire is contained, officials say it will continue to burn for quite some time.
