SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- A four-alarm fire Thursday morning is estimated to have caused more than $5 million in damage to a meat packaging plant in South San Francisco, Fire Marshal Luis Da Silva said Friday.

The fire was reported just after 2 a.m. at a Columbus Salame facility at 465 Cabot Road, and was controlled at 9:45 a.m., according to a San Mateo County fire dispatcher.

Da Silva said crews were still at the facility this morning to keep an eye on hot spots in the building.

The cause of the blaze has not been determined, he said.

The 40,000-square-foot facility is used to slice and package meat for Columbus Salame, a Hayward-based company that sells meat products in supermarkets and retail stores nationwide.

About 10 or 15 maintenance employees were inside the building when the fire started, but they were immediately evacuated and no one was injured, according to the company.

Company spokesman Joe Streng said Friday that employees that have been impacted by the fire will be paid through next week and that the company is figuring out how to use those workers at their other packaging and slicing facilities.

"Every effort is being made to redeploy them to other facilities, but no decisions are being made about what may happen long-term until we assess what happened with the damage to the operation," Streng said.