Fire crews in Nova Scotia's Shelburne County were called out early Thursday morning to deal with a fire at an abandoned fish plant in the community of Shag Harbour.

The buildings that caught fire suffered heavy damages.

"It was an old fish plant with four buildings on site and three of them are heavily damaged by fire," said Municipality of Barrington Fire Services co-ordinator Dwayne Hunt. "They've got the fire knocked down now so they're just in the process of knocking down the hot spots."

Hunt said the fire was called in at 6 a.m. He said it's been several years since the buildings have been used.

With only one of the buildings still intact, it's too early to say what will happen at the site once the cleanup is completed.