Footscray Factory Fire: Smoke Warning Issued Across Melbourne's Inner West

More than 20 fire trucks fought a large blaze at the old Kinnears factory site in Footscray on Wednesday night.

In 2017, three people died in a deliberately lit fire at the site.

A Watch and Act alert was issued about 8pm on Wednesday for Footscray, urging residents in the surrounding area to avoid Ballarat Road and stay indoors.

Authorities responded to the blaze at the factory in Ballarat Road, in Footscray, about 7:45pm after multiple calls to triple-0.

More than 20 firefighting vehicles attended the blaze, which was brought under control in less than an hour.

Fire Rescue Victoria's Tony Milczakowsky said there was a partial roof collapse and sections of the building were heavily impacted by flames.

"We did escalate the response once we got on scene because it was quite a large fire," he said.

"It took us about half an hour to bring it under control. At the height of the blaze [there were] approximately 20 appliances and about 80 crew members." 

Mr Milczakowsky said there was an order to eventually knock down the building, but for the time being demolition crews were securing the area to make it safe.

He said fire investigation crews were working to understand how the fire started, but were "not looking at any suspicious circumstances at this time".

There were no reports of injury.

Colleen Hartland from the Anti-Toxic Waste Alliance said the frequency of factory fires was a cause for concern.

"I've gone through quite a few of these and your stomach turns every time you hear more than two fire engines go past past your house because you know it is probably going to be something terrible," she said.

"This is our third major fire in the west in a month so something's going badly wrong in terms of inspections on these sites."

The site has been earmarked for development for a number of years.

Wednesday's blaze follows a large chemical explosion in Melbourne's west earlier this month, which resulted in one of the state's biggest fires in recent years.

Part of Ballarat Road in Footscray remains closed following a warehouse fire on Wednesday night.

The fire broke out in warehouse about 7.45pm and was under control within 30 minutes.

Fire fighters continued to put out the remaining flames into the night.

An exclusion zone was established with residents urged to avoid the area, though no evacuations were necessary. The zone is still in place on Thursday morning.

There are congestion issues in the area as Ballarat Road remains closed to traffic and trams between Gordon Street and Farnsworth Avenue and are expected to remain closed for the morning.

FRV said on about 7am, that firefighters had been successful in extinguishing most of the hotspots and will continue to monitor the incident.

Crews though remain concerned about the structural integrity of a wall at the property’s boundary.

Fire investigators are working to determine the cause of the blaze expected to provide further details on Thursday.