Nearly a hundred federal and Honolulu firefighters battled a large, stubborn military warehouse fire yesterday afternoon at the Navy Marine Golf Course across from Honolulu International Airport.

The blaze sent clouds of thick black smoke billowing from the 1940s-era metal structure, filling the overhead skies and engulfing the Catlin Park military housing subdivision adjacent to the golf course.

No one was in the warehouse, and there were no injuries, officials said. But homes upwind from the warehouse were evacuated as a precaution because of the heavy smoke, and also because officials weren't sure what was in the warehouse.

It was not known how many homes were evacuated.

"It was a voluntary safety evacuation," said Kahealani Spencer, a federal fire inspector and public information officer.

Fire spokesman Capt. Robert Main said city firefighters went from house to house advising residents to evacuate.

"Anytime there's smoke you want to be careful," said Main. "And we also don't know what's in the building, and we're dealing with a building from the World War II era."

Catlin Drive was closed throughout most of the afternoon to traffic other than fire and police vehicles.

Federal firefighters were called in at 12:27 p.m. and immediately requested assistance from HFD. Forty federal firefighters with eight engines and one medic unit fought the blaze alongside 55 city firefighters with 12 engines, including one hazardous material unit.

Main said the fire was extinguished at 7:28 p.m.

The single-story, metal warehouse, located about 60 yards north of Nimitz Highway and a block west of Catlin Drive, was estimated to be about 17,000 square feet. At around 1 p.m., the structure collapsed.

The fire was declared under control by 1:15 p.m., but it continued to smolder throughout the afternoon as firefighters doused the wreckage from all directions with hoses capable of blasting 200 to 1,000 gallons of water a minute.

Main said that firefighters wanted to protect the public from smoke and potential hazardous fumes while doing as little damage as possible to the structure so investigators could better determine the cause of the fire.

Spencer said it was too soon to determine the cause.