COCOA, Fla. — A container at a SpaceX storage facility in Cocoa caught fire Monday afternoon.

  • SpaceX storage container catches fire at Cocoa facility
  • Fire thought to be electrical; Fire Marshal will investigate
  • Production on SpaceX prototype Starship taking place there

Firefighters from two engines, a tower truck, and the district and chief all responded to the fire on the 800 block of Cidco Road just after noon and had the fire out within 10 minutes, Cocoa Police said.

There were no injuries, they said.

The structure that caught fire was a portable storage container about 8 feet by 8 feet by 40 feet and housed mostly welding equipment. Damage was estimated to be between $50,000 and $100,000, police said.

"This afternoon, a small fire occurred at a SpaceX facility in Cocoa, Florida. The fire was contained to a sea van on site and extinguished thanks to the Cocoa Fire Department, which responded within minutes. There were no injuries as a result of the fire, and the cause is under investigation," SpaceX said in a released statement.

Earlier estimates on damages were considerably more — in the $650,000 range — but officials said that total included damage from a previous fire.

The cause of the fire may have been electrical in nature, but the Cocoa Fire Marshal will investigate and determine the exact cause.

SpaceX will have to make repairs before it can resume operations.

"We have advised SpaceX that until they can get a recovery team, (but) they have to stop work for a team to inspect the electrical, get the storage container moved out, get all the hazardous waste that was in the container from the fire burning out, before getting it back in service and inspected," Cocoa Deputy Fire Chief Jonathan Lamm said.

It's unclear how the fire will affect production of SpaceX's prototype Starship being built there. The ​spacecraft will head on test suborbital flights. The final ship is scheduled to head to the moon and Mars.

In April, an explosion that SpaceX initially described as an "anomaly" destroyed a Crew Dragon spacecraft during a static fire test at Cape Canaveral. The explosion sent a huge plume of orange smoke into the air at Cape Canaveral that could be seen for miles. No one was hurt.

In July 2017, a fire at a SpaceX building at Port Canaveral injured a firefighter. No equipment or hardware was damaged, SpaceX said at the time.