An early Saturday fire consumed baled cardboard and dozens of pallets behind Wal-Mart on Washington Bou­levard, shooting flames more than 30 feet high.

The building was not damaged, said volunteer firefighter and sheriff’s Commander Bill Steven.

“Numerous pallets back there of compressed cardboard caught fire somehow, and were shooting flames up higher than the roof of Wal-Mart,” said Steven.

He said 14 firefighters and four engines were required to put out the blaze, which began at about 2 a.m.

“It took a couple of hours, and several of those pallets were all bundled together,” said Steven.

He said the bundled pallets and cardboard were essentially a tinder-box that had to be taken apart — while burning — to be extinguished.

Luckily, volunteer firefighter Darren Short knew how to drive a forklift, Steven said.

“We had to get in there and separated all of those pallets — we had a guy that was good with a forklift,” he said. “When he was separating them the flames shot out from between.”

No one was hurt, he said, adding the fire destroyed dozens of pallets and baled cardboard and not much else.