A two-alarm fire tore through the interior of Home Depot in East Wareham early Thursday morning, causing approximately $300,000 in damage, according to the Wareham Fire Department.

No injuries were reported.

The fire appeared to start somewhere near the electrical department towards the front of the store, but according to Wareham Fire Chief Robert McDuffy, it is unclear how the fire started.

McDuffy said they were first alerted to the fire by a 911 call from a worker in the building. When the first crew arrived on scene, smoke was billowing from one of the main entrances of the store and it took some time for first responders to locate the fire. Reports say that the department was first alerted around midnight and were on site until around 4 a.m.

“The building was absolutely full of smoke,” he said, adding that fire sensors in the building set off the sprinklers and activated the fire alarm. “The biggest challenge here was the ventilation.”

He said firefighters used two ladder trucks to get up to the roof of in order to open smoke hatches typical to those types of large buildings. That allowed firefighters to simultaneously locate the fire and extinguish it.

McDuffy said although there was a fire hydrant close to the front entrance of the building, it did not initially work, so firefighters had to use pumps from their trucks to extinguish the fire.

He said hydrant was a private hydrant owned by the Home Depot and that firefighters were eventually able to get it working. They used it to supply the sprinklers within the store with more water pressure to help put the fire out.

“With facilities like this, they’re deemed private hydrants,” he said around 10 a.m. Thursday morning as a Wareham Water District worker attended to the hydrant, which has now been placed ‘out of service.’ “The hydrant did not work for us.”

McDuffy said there appeared to be significant smoke and water damage to materials inside the store. It's unclear how much damage there was to the structure itself, though cleaning crews were already on site at 9 a.m.

Several pallets of inventory with visible fire damage could be seen in the parking lot of the store Thursday morning.

The store will be closed until further notice.

“They’ll be all over this thing making sure it’s properly taken care of before letting anyone in the store,” said McDuffy.

McDuffy said that because it was a two-alarm fire, several other departments, including those from Onset, Carver, Marion, and Wareham Police and EMS responded to the fire as well.

“Due to the enormity of the building, there was a second alarm,” he said.

He said representatives from the Massachusetts Fire Marshal’s office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Wareham Police, and Wareham Fire are currently involved with the investigation.

Assistant Fire Chief Patrick Haskell, who was the commander of the fire response team, said initial reports stated that employees present at the store at the time of the fire had attempted to put it out themselves, but were unsuccessful.

McDuffy commended the work of everyone involved with extinguishing the fire, including several members of his department, including first responders and dispatch.

He mentioned dispatchers Captain Paul Reidy and Chris Smith for their work providing information to the crews, as well as pump operator Dave Wahlstrom, Captain Matt Rowley and firefighters Chris McIntosh and Jim Rawlings, who were first on the scene.

“(Rawlings and McIntosh) went in and found the fire with the Captain (Rowley),” said McDuffy.

In all, seven fire engines, two ladder trucks, and 32 firefighters were on the scene of the fire.

"We're grateful for the outstanding work the fire department did to extinguish the fire and minimize the damage," said Stephen Holmes, a spokesman for Home Depot. "We're in cleanup phase right now, which is why the store is closed at the moment. We don't expect the store to be closed for too long, but don't yet want to speculate on exactly when we'll reopen for customers."