JAMES CITY COUNTY, Va. (WAVY) — As a fire continues to burn in part of a parking lot of a major shopping center and an investigation into it is underway, nearby residents have expressed concern about the ongoing blaze that fire officials say is contained. On the scene in a parking lot of the Williamsburg Premium Outlets in James City County, smoke continued to billow out of the ground from a fire that began around 9 a.m. Saturday as fire flames were seen erupting from the concrete. "I just hope that it's resolved soon and that people maybe take a little bit better precaution," said resident Genevieve Pietrzak. "This is like a busy shopping outlet and everyone was just really happy to just get back to business as usual." A section of the parking lot collapsed, leaving a landscape of ruptured concrete. The blaze has no end in sight. "Because the location of the fire underground, [it] would make that very difficult to do," said Renee Dallman, a public information officer with James City County, talking about putting out the fire. "So really, the best bet for our firefighters now is to just keep it contained and to let it burn itself out." Dallman said the fire is in an underground stormwater detention facility. "It's very similar to milk crates stacked up and the stormwater from the front of the parking lot runs off and goes into those crates," Dallman said, "and then it eventually goes from there, and so the plastic the crates are made out of have caught on fire." James City County said safety is the priority as the fire continues to burn. "All air monitoring that they have done has been within normal limits for a fire," Dallman said. "We have the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality Office of Pollution Response. They were notified and asked to come as part of our normal procedure that we do here." Along with DEQ's pollution response office, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management have also been on the scene investigating the fire. The local sewer system and cemetery are not involved in the fire. Pietrzak said seeing the fire in her own backyard is concerning. "I was very shocked," she said. "This is the sort of things that you see on the news and never really expect to actually happen where you frequent. I also live around the block from here so it's concerning, and the fact that it's still going on is a little bit more concerning that everything is business as usual when this is less than a mile away." The cause of the fie remains unknown and may never be determined. James City County Fire Department is monitoring the fire 24/7.