Santa Maria nursery fire causes thousands of dollars in damage

Firefighters worked quickly early Monday morning to put out a fire at a commercial nursery in the 2700 block of E. Clark Avenue in Santa Maria that caused an estimated $3,000-$4,000 dollars in damage.

“There was active flame when we got on scene, it was just inside and we had to make access, that was the hardest part was getting in,” said Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Jason Toole.

The fire broke out at Plantel Nurseries at about 5:30 a.m. Fire personnel with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department and the Santa Maria Fire Department were dispatched to the scene, and crews were quick to extinguish the flames.

“We found several small fires inside the nursery back there and once we were able to access through the plastic sheeting we were able to extinguish the flames in ten minutes, ten, fifteen minutes,” said Toole.

The fire damaged the portion of the nursery that grows transplant vegetables for local farms, according to our KCOY 12 reporter Keith Carls, who was on scene while an investigation looking into the cause of the fire was underway.

Small plastic trays were found to be burning inside of a greenhouse at Plantel Nurseries.

Fire officials say no one was injured in the blaze.