Two Metro Transit buses were destroyed and a third was damaged after a fire broke out at the bus maintenance facility in Burnside. (Aaron Gowlett/CBC)

Two Metro Transit buses were destroyed — and a third bus damaged — after a fire broke out at the bus maintenance facility in Burnside on Sunday night.

Emergency officials were called to the Ilsley Avenue compound just before 10 p.m.

Firefighters were able to put out the fire quickly, but two regular buses were destroyed and an Access-A-Bus was damaged, said Platoon Chief Gary McCurdy of the Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service.

It took firefighters about 20 minutes to knock out the fire, while Metro Transit workers moved other buses out of the way.

There were a number of challenges fighting the fire, said McCurdy.

"Because of the nature of the fuels, we've got an awful lot of synthetics and rubbers, vinyls, plastic. They burn very high, they make a lot of heavy, dark smoke," he told CBC News.

"Working in the immediate area, some visibility may be a problem. You've got tires popping which aren't necessarily a large hazard but they can be a bit of a distraction."

McCurdy said the cause of the fire had not been determined and cautioned it may not have been arson.

"It might be a little hasty in jumping to that conclusion or drawing that assumption prior to doing any type of investigation," he said Monday.

"All three of them were parked close enough that you could probably walk between them but that's about it. You might have to turn to your side a little bit depending on your size. So they were in very close proximity to each other — very easy for fire to extend from one to the other."

Investigators plan to return to the scene Monday morning.