By admin 
LA VERNE, Calif. (KABC) — Hazardous materials crews were monitoring rising temperatures Wednesday in a battery storage unit near a solar farm at a Metropolitan Water District facility in La Verne adjacent to an identical unit that caught fire and burned a day earlier.
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The storage unit being monitored began smoking and making popping sounds Tuesday evening due to heat exposure from the original fire and by about 7 a.m. Wednesday, the temperature inside had jumped about 20 degrees to around 90 degrees, La Verne Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Savage confirmed.
“It was in the low 70s at midnight,” he said. “It’s now approaching the 90s and it’s not that warm here yet.”
The lithium battery fire was reported around Tuesday morning near a solar panel field on the northeast side of the facility, prompting evacuation orders and warnings near Bonita Avenue and Wheeler Avenue and a shelter-in-place for the surrounding residential neighborhood. Some evacuation orders were later downgraded to warnings.
Grace Elementary School was to remain closed Wednesday. The school was placed under a shelter-in-place order Tuesday as was Bonita High School as crews worked to contain the blaze.
The fire prompted the closure of the University of La Verne. The university announced it will reopen Wednesday.
An evacuation order for the immediate vicinity of the MWD facility remained in effect Wednesday.
La Verne fire crews were still monitoring the scene and mopping up, noting that there was still a risk, with more lithium batteries at the site.
Both the battery storage unit that caught fire and the one being monitored today is 8 feet wide, 8 feet high and 20 feet long, Savage said.
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The original fire was put out Tuesday night, but a drone was being used to monitor the temperature in both units, he said.
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“The original battery bank, that fire has subsided. There’s no active fire there,” Savage said.
As for the second unit, it was exposed to fire and around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday crews heard pops and saw puffs of smoke and saw that a door jamb had been blown ajar.
“The concern is that behavior is going to continue,” which would require the same cooling measures employed Tuesday.
Air quality monitoring is showing no sign of dangerous toxins, Savage said.
The Metropolitan Water District said its water supply was not affected by the fire.
Meanwhile, the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Savage said nothing like this has happened there before, but it’s raising concerns for neighbors who had no clue that the water treatment plant housed massive battery banks with the potential to catch fire.
If you’re wondering if you live near a facility that houses potentially dangerous or hazardous items, you can find out.
Back in May, 7 On Your Side did an investigation and we shared the Environmental Protection Agency’s interactive map, where you can learn about the enforcement and compliance history of facilities near you.
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City News Service contributed to this report.