The Santa Barbara County Fire Department is investigating two car fires that occurred overnight Wednesday in Goleta.
Public information officer David Sadecki said firefighters were called out twice to a densely populated Ellwood neighborhood to respond to reports of cars on fire.
About 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, crews responded with four engines and a ladder truck to a car fire at 350 Mathilda Drive.
By the time firefighters arrived, Sadecki said, one car was “fully involved” in the flames, and a second had started to burn.
Fire personnel were able to knock down the fire before it spread to the two-story, 25-unit apartment building at the location, Sadecki said.
The apartments sustained some smoke and heat damage, but he said no residents were trapped or harmed.
About three hours later, firefighters responded to other reports of a car fire in the same area, only one block east of Mathilda Drive on the 300 block of Ellwood Beach Drive, in front of a 16-unit apartment building. Three vehicles at 350 and 399 Ellwood Beach Drive were on fire. Those fires also were quickly contained, Sadecki said
He said both fires appear to be related. Investigators were on scene, but no cause had been determined.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at sfernandez@noozhawk.com.
(Jack Kimball / Noozhawk video)