A fire at the DeKalb County Self Storage resulted in $125,000 damage to 18 storage units Wednesday.

The fire began at the storage facility, 202 Harvestore Drive, at 9:48 a.m. in unit 43 of Building G. All damage was contained to the north end of the building.

One person was treated for injuries on the scene and was released. No firefighters were injured.

The fire was caused by improperly discarded smoking materials and was considered accidental in nature, fire officials said.

Forty-six firefighters from Sycamore, Cortland, Malta and Shabbona aided in putting out the fire.

“I am extremely proud of the fire department and with the police for their help as well,” said David Baker, owner of the storage facility.

The fire might have been stopped earlier, said Mike Grenke, a DeKalb resident who had a team of people moving items from one storage unit to another when the fire started.

Grenke alleges that these people went to a nearby UPS station upon discovering the fire to obtain a fire extinguisher. He said at that time, the fire was still small.

“They would not allow my guys to have a fire extinguisher because they said it was against [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] policies for not having one in their building,” Grenke said. “It was clearly visible there was a fire. They delayed the decision a couple minutes and the fire spread rapidly after that. It’s common sense: You have a fire, you need an extinguisher.”

“I don’t like what I heard about UPS,” Baker said. “They maybe could have saved the whole thing.”

UPS had no comment.

DeKalb Fire Department shift commander Scott Love said he only heard rumors about someone approaching UPS for a fire extinguisher.