Two workers were treated on the scene for possible chemical exposure following a battery fire at a bus maintenance facility on the South Coast.
The fire happened at about 9:30 this morning at the Metropolitan Transit District yard on Olive Street in Santa Barbara. A bank of lithium-ion batteries in a covered outdoor location at the yard caught on fire.
Santa Barbara firefighters and MTD officials used hand trucks to separate the burning batteries to others nearby. The blaze was knocked down with fire extinguishers.
Investigators think water leaking through a metal roof onto the batteries might have shorted one of them, starting the fire.
