MOSS LANDING — Highway 1 was closed and evacuations were ordered in the community of Moss Landing and the Elkhorn Slough area after a major fire erupted Thursday afternoon at a battery storage plant in Moss Landing in northern Monterey County.
The fire, which was raging out of control Thursday night, sending up huge flames and clouds of hazardous black smoke, was reported around 3 p.m. at the plant, located on Highway 1, Monterey County spokesman Nicholas Pasculli said.
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“It’s imperative that residents heed the evacuation order and take the direction of law enforcement and fire personnel,” Pasculli said. “This is a situation where we take the idea of protecting life and property very seriously. We implore people to heed the evacuation order and to go to a safe location.”
Evacuations of about 1,500 people were ordered for areas of Moss Landing south of Elkhorn Slough, north of Molera Road and Monterey Dunes Way, and west of Castroville Boulevard and Elkhorn Road to the ocean, he said.
Pasculli said the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office has called other agencies in the county to help with the emergency.
“It’s a major incident,” he said. “All the resources in the county and our neighboring jurisdictions have been deployed to assist with this incident.”
The facility, owned by Vistra Energy, a Texas company, is one of the largest battery storage plants in the world. It holds tens of thousands of lithium batteries, which are used to store electricity from solar power and other sources generated during the day for use at night. Such battery storage plants are a key part of California’s efforts to shift most of its electricity generation to renewable sources.
“There’s no way to sugarcoat it. This is a disaster, is what it is,” Monterey County Supervisor Glen Church told KSBW-TV. “This is extremely disconcerting.”
Church said the fire was “contained” inside a concrete building whose roof had collapsed.
“We don’t think there’s any real threat of it extending outward and getting beyond where it’s in,” he said. “There are a lot of batteries in there, and it’s burning pretty much inside that facility.”
The plant is located on the site of a now-shuttered 1950s-era PG&E Moss Landing natural gas plant visible for its huge smokestacks near Moss Landing Harbor. The first phase was completed in 2020, and it was expanded to 750 megawatts in 2023. Vistra sells the electricity stored there to PG&E, which also owns a separate 182-megawatt battery storage plant on the north side of the site that has 256 Tesla “Megapack” battery packs. That facility did not appear to be burning by 8 p.m.
Personnel at the Vistra plant called the North Monterey County Fire Protection District for assistance after a fire was detected in the 300-megawatt Phase I energy storage facility, company spokesperson Jenny Lyon said in an email to this news organization.
All personnel were safely evacuated, according to Lyon.
“Our top priority is the safety of the community and our personnel,” she said, “and Vistra deeply appreciates the continued assistance of our local emergency responders.”
Lyon said the cause of the fire has not been determined, but an investigation will begin once it is extinguished.
Lithium battery fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish. They burn at high temperatures and can emit toxic gases that can cause respiratory problems, skin burns and eye irritation.
The facility has been the site of other fires before.
Fires broke out at the Vistra plant on Sept. 4, 2021, and Feb 14, 2022. Investigations showed that they were caused by a malfunction in a fire sprinkler system, which released water and caused several of the units to overheat.
Then in September 2022, a fire broke out at the PG&E Elkhorn battery plant. Police closed Highway 1 for 12 hours. An investigation found it was caused by an improperly installed vent shield on one of the 256 units, which allowed rainwater to get in and short out the batteries. There were no injuries to firefighters, PG&E employees or the public.
Afterward, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring battery storage plants in California to draw up emergency response plans with local fire departments and increase fire safety.
“Increasing the state’s battery storage is essential to reaching our clean energy goals,” said State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who wrote the bill, in an interview last year. “But we also have to ensure that these facilities have safety systems in place to protect the health and well-being of workers and surrounding communities.”
Last summer, after two fires occurred at San Diego County battery storage facilities, San Diego County supervisors required county officials to draw up tighter rules that would restrict battery storage plants near homes, schools and other facilities. And when Vistra proposed building a large battery plant in Morro Bay, citizens there approved a measure on the November ballot that they hoped would block its construction.
Battery storage has increased sevenfold in the past five years in California, from 1,474 megawatts in 2020 to 10,383 megawatts this past summer. A megawatt is enough electricity to run 750 homes.
Thursday night, the Castroville Recreation Center, located at 11261 Crane St., was serving as a temporary evacuation point for people forced to leave their homes.
Highway 1 is closed in both directions between Highway 183 and Struve Road. There is no estimated time to reopen the roadway.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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Source: www.mercurynews.com