LEESBURG, Fla. --

Leesburg's fire chief said the city experienced the biggest blaze it's seen in at least five years on Sunday.

The Leesburg Office Park burned to the ground, and firefighters were unable to save more than a dozen offices.

The four-alarm fire started at about 10 a.m. Sunday. Leesburg Fire Chief Dennis Sargent said what made the fire so difficult to fight was that the building didn't have sprinklers or fire walls.

Firefighters from Leesburg, Lake County and the Villages were not able to make an interior attack on the fire because they said it was too dangerous.

The 1970s-era complex was not built to current fire codes. All crews could do was pour water from outside and above and watch the building crumble in front of them, firefighters said.

"(It was) one of those where everything is against you, from the late discovery to the fact that this was a building that was basically built to burn," Sargent said.

An employee at the office building was at the scene as fire crews cleaned up.

"It's kind of devastating to think, where do you pick up?" Scottie Bull said. "But we'll make it.

Bull, a physical therapist, watched as her medical office burned. She said no one was inside and medical records are safe.

"We're on a server, and I never realized how important that would be until now," Bull said.

The local United Way and Children's Home Society officers were destroyed in the fire.

Crews were able to stop the fire at the very end of the building, home to a regional probation and parole office.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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