Toledo firefighters and a hazardous material team tonight are using water in an attempt to douse a chemical fire at an industrial building near Nebraska Avenue at Junction Avenue.

Officials also said it was safe for residents — some of whom had voluntarily evacuated — to return to their homes.

The fire was reported about 2:45 p.m. at Lithium Innovations in the 1300 block of Campbell Street, Toledo Fire and Rescue Department spokesman Pvt. Sterling Rahe said.

PHOTO GALLERY: Toledo firefighters respond to fire

The building evacuated its six employees. Toledo police set up a perimeter for voluntary evacuations from Campbell to Hamilton and Hawley to Pulaski streets.

Some residents elected to stay inside their homes while the fire burns, which could last for days. Ohio EPA spokesman James Lee said an on-scene manager was en route to the scene to provide technical assistance to local authorities as needed.

Early this evening, crews started to use water on the fire, something they originally thought they could not do because of the presence of lithium in the building. But they later learned there wasn’t as much lithium present in the structure.

Lithium Innovations, owned by Toledoan Ford Cauffiel and incorporated as a limited liability company in 2010, does highly technical work with lithium, developing energy-saving window coatings and processing the metal for pharmaceutical use.

Mr. Cauffiel said late this afternoon that the business is now manufacturing lithium targets for use in the glass industry to make windows. He said the fire began with a very small amount of lithium being used in a dry room when a valve failed and lithium leaked out.

Special fire extinguishers did not put out the fire.

“The chemical for some reason didn’t put out the fire," he said. “We had four fire extinguishers and it didn’t work.”

Mr. Cauffiel said the fire then spread to the building's rubber roof.

The fire department originally elected not to use water to fight the blaze because the combination of water and lithium produces a highly flammable hydrogen gas, he said.

There are no other chemicals in the building that would create additional hazmat concerns, Mr. Cauffiel said. He is hopeful the building and the equipment inside will not be a total loss.

“I hope we save part of the building," he said. "We’ll see when it’s extinguished.”

The company in May, 2016, was awarded a government contract with Lucintech, a University of Toledo startup owned by university professor emeritus Al Compaan, to develop a lightweight device that can detect radiation for security use at ports of entry and also to monitor land, sea, and air shipping containers.

Fires involving lithium, or other metals, should not be put out with water, said Michael Young, assistant professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Toledo.

"Any metal fire is bad to dump water on," he said. "If you've ever taken a sparkler on the 4th of July and stuck it in water, it really lights up. It's the same thing."

"Usually the only thing you can do is try to suffocate it," he said, or let itself burn out.

Like other fires, smoke from a lithium blaze can be harmful if breathed in directly, he said.

"Just like breathing in soot or dust, it could be harmful," he said. "It's not necessarily toxic unless it coats your lungs; as long as people aren't breathing large amounts of dust they should be OK."

Staff writer Ryan Dunn contributed to this report.

Contact Alexandra Mester: amester@theblade.com, 419-724-6066, or on Twitter @AlexMesterBlade.

Contact Lauren Lindstrom at llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154, or on Twitter @lelindstrom.

First Published March 2, 2017, 8:36 p.m.