LITTLE FALLS, N.Y. (WKTV) - Yellow tape reading "Police Line Do Not Cross" roped off the outside of an abandoned warehouse on East Mill Street in Little Falls Wednesday afternoon.

The five-story brick building was already boarded up at several entrances and windows, even before a fire broke out at the scene earlier that day.

According to Little Falls Fire Chief Robert Parese, crews got on the scene before Noon and found a thick black smoke coming from the building's fourth floor.

As firefighters made their way through a stairwell, they discovered that the doors leading to the fourth floor were locked. When asked if the doors had been locked for a long period of time or whether this would have been done around the time the fire was started, Chief Parese said he couldn't comment, but that the Little Falls Fire Department was working with Little Falls Police on the matter.

Once firefighters knocked down the locked door, the source of the fire was discovered - a pile of debris in the center of the fourth floor, which Parese said was starting to spread to other parts of the building. Parese said crews knocked down the fire in roughly 20 minutes time. The fire remains under investigation, but Parese said that it "did appear suspicious in nature."

Initial radio traffic between the Fire Department and Law Enforcement Officials mentioned an individual who was seen running into a brush area when crews arrived on the scene. Whether a suspect was in custody - neither Parese or Little Falls Police Chief Michael Masi could confirm at the time. Chief Masi said that information would be released by the police department as it became available.