500 homes evacuated due to lithium ion battery fire

LA VERNE, Calif. (NBC, KYMA) - 500 homes in a Southern California community are under evacuation orders because of a lithium ion battery fire.

The SUV-sized batteries are in storage units at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. They're used to store energy from the plant's solar panels.

Because of the fire that sparked Tuesday, the temperature of the batteries is too hot; about 90-degrees.

Emergency workers are hosing them down, trying to cool them to 60-degrees, and they said that could take days.

"We're not worried about an explosion. It would just be that the fire rapidly grows and we would not be able to...we would have a plume of smoke that would travel through the city so, that's why we're keeping those zones the way they are because the predominant winds in that area would push that smoke or that plume with those hazardous vapors in there through that area."

Chief Brandon Coatney, La Verne Fire Department

"They're in our backyard. I didn't even know they had them there...but it's scary," said Judy Tabacci, one of the evacuees.

Even though about 500 homes are under evacuation orders, many people say they're not leaving.