SAN JOSE -- A large abandoned warehouse north of downtown burned to the ground on Saturday afternoon while firefighters rushed to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby apartment buildings.

The San Jose Fire Department put out the two-alarm fire on Hedding and 10th streets in a little over an hour after it was reported at 2:20 p.m., said Capt. Rob Brown.

No one was hurt in the blaze.

"It was pretty far gone by the time we got there," Brown said. "There wasn't much to be done other than to try to contain it and extinguish it."

Brown said crews leaving fire stations could see the smoke after several people called dispatchers to report it.

"They had heavy fire pretty much throughout the whole warehouse," Brown said.

No one was at the warehouse at the time. The last registered name on the building is for Allied Container Corp.

The fire department called for a second-alarm because of the risk of nearby apartments catching fire, especially since the wind was blowing in that direction. About 35 firefighters doused the flames before it could spread beyond the building.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.

Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408-920-5705. Follow him at twitter.com/rosenberg17.