A large plume of smoke was visible in the sky Wednesday after a fire broke out inside the NYPD Erie Basin Auto Pound near the waterfront.

IKEA shoppers and people fishing nearby looked on as emergency units rushed to the scene.

According to an FDNY spokesperson, 10 vehicles caught fire. More than 25 emergency units responded to the scene.

The pound is a location used by the NYPD to store vehicles seized for investigations or other legal matters.

While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, many locals are not surprised by the incident. This is the second time in recent years that flames broke out at the Red Hook NYPD storage hub.

Two years ago, a fire destroyed a blue shed at the same location, which was used to store evidence for the NYPD. The fire compromised biological evidence dating back 20 to 30 years.

A man who lived in an RV near the site before the 2022 fire recalled the chaos of that incident. He asked not to be named but said that, at the time, several people lived in RVs in the area. "A lot of people moved out except the one female living there now," he said. Attempts to speak with the woman living in the RV were unsuccessful.

The NYPD has not yet provided an update on whether the vehicles involved in today's fire were seized cars or NYPD vehicles.

The department has also not commented on whether any evidence was compromised in Wednesday's fire.