ABOUT four cubic metres of frozen garlic bread will have to be written off after a fire broke out at a factory in Brisbane’s East.

Nearly 30 firefighters are at the Australian Garlic Bread Company in Capalaba, shovelling and raking through three to four cubic meters of frozen garlic bread to find the source of the fire.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services were called about 2.12am after an automatic alarm was activated.

The smoke-logged building hampered firefighting operations by making it hard for crews to locate the source of the fire.

QFES inspector Simon Evans said the seed of the fire was located deep inside the pile of boxed garlic bread stored inside a cold room.

“At the moment we’ve got approximately 3 to 4 cubic metres of product in a big pile on the ground and there’s a deep seeded small fire that we are having difficulty getting to,” he said.

“It’s a labour intensive job because crews are having to use shovels, rakes to separate all the product before it’s removed outside.”

Insp Evans, who is the incident controller on site, told The Courier-Mail the scene did not smell pleasant.

“Never ever put foil in the microwave, that’s what it smells like,” he said.

It is unknown at this stage how the fire broke out in the freezer.

The building was unoccupied at the time and there has been no threat to neighbouring businesses.

Fire damage to the factory itself is contained to the cold room.

It is expected firefighters will remain at the factory until the atmosphere is safe.

There have been no reports of injuries.