Tuesday morning, Santa Barbara County Firefighters continued their investigation into the cause of a fire that broke out in Santa Maria and damaged thousands of dollars worth of farm equipment.
Public information officer, Scott Safechuck says just after midnight, the department received multiple calls from people who reported seeing flames just off Highway 101 near Stowell Road.
He says the fire was contained within a farm equipment lot neighboring nearby fields, and that it took first responders just under an hour to extinguish it.
Safechuck says the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
"When you are dealing with tractors and equipment, there are a lot of things that can cause fires or that it could be related to," he told KSBY. "Sometimes they are human nature, or they can be an electrical issue, so that is why it takes a lot of effort out of our investigation division to determine a cause."
The owners of the destroyed farm equipment say their initial estimate of damage is more than $300,000.
