NATCHEZ — A mid-afternoon fire Tuesday at the Dollar General on Seargent S. Prentiss Drive scorched much of the store’s warehouse, damaging both the building structure and merchandise stored in it.

The Natchez Fire Department responded to the call at approximately 2 p.m.

“The manager said everybody was in the front of the store, and when he turned around he could see smoke coming from the back of the building,” Natchez Fire Chief Oliver Stewart said.

Most of the fire damage was limited to the rear of the building, but Oliver said the exact point of origin for the fire had not been determined Tuesday afternoon.

“They have an office in the rear, and it looks like it started in that office,” Stewart said. “We are looking there.”

Irish Lytle, a substitute pharmacist at Byron’s Discount Drugs — which is located in the same shopping center as the Dollar General — said she was not aware of the fire until a customer came into the store and told her about it.

“It was rolling black smoke there for a while, but it calmed down once we got outside,” Lytle said.

The other businesses in the shopping center did not sustain any fire damage, Stewart said.

“The construction of the walls kept (the fire) contained to the Dollar General,” he said.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation Tuesday evening.