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MOSS LANDING — A major fire at a lithium battery storage plant in Moss Landing flared up again early Friday afternoon and Highway 1 remained closed after authorities said it smoldered most of the morning.
Around 6 p.m., Monterey County officials said in a press release that all evacuation orders had been lifted.
“(The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) conducted cooperative air quality monitoring with environmental agencies and data confirms no threat to human health,” officials wrote in the statement. “Agencies continue to monitor the incident.”
The fire at the Vistra Energy power plant in Moss Landing generated huge flames and significant amounts of smoke Thursday but had diminished significantly by Friday morning, Fire Chief Joel Mendoza of the North County Fire Protection District of Monterey County said.
“There’s very little, if any, of a plume emitting from that building,” Mendoza said during a press conference Friday morning. Crews are not engaging with the fire and are waiting for it to burn out, he said. Letting lithium-ion battery fires burn out is not unusual because they burn very hot and are hard to put out.
In a press release Friday, Santa Cruz County Public Health officials said they continue to monitor the fire but there is no immediate threat, and people may resume normal activities.
“Sensitive groups, including those with respiratory difficulties, should continue monitoring local air conditions,” the release stated. “Residents who live closest to the fire should limit outdoor exposure, keep windows and doors closed, and adjust central air systems to recirculate indoor air or close outdoor air intakes to avoid drawing in smoky outdoor air.”
Mendoza said Vistra’s fire suppression system, which had worked in prior situations, wasn’t sufficient and the fire overtook the system. He said that air quality monitors set up by officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had not detected hydrogen fluoride gas, one of the main hazardous materials that can come from burning batteries.
Such gasses, along with soot and most of the harmful emissions from the batteries appear to have quickly drifted to higher elevations, said Richard Stedman, executive officer of the Monterey Bay Air Resources District.
“The plume was at least 1,000 feet high,” he said Friday. “We’re not expecting it to impact people on the ground. It looks like it has been pretty well dispersed. We’re not anticipating health impacts on people.”
Evacuations remained in place Friday for 1,214 residents, who were evacuated from 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.
The fire was first reported around 3 p.m. Thursday, Monterey County spokesman Nicholas Pasculli said. The highway was not expected to open until the evacuation order is lifted.
Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto said there have been no injuries reported and that none of the air quality monitoring systems picked up on any dangerous gasses in the air. Despite that, she said the county wanted to await the arrival of a more advanced monitoring system Friday afternoon, before lifting the evacuation order.
Fire crews did not engage with the fire but rather waited for it to burn out on its own. The county set up a temporary evacuation center for people forced to leave their homes at the Castroville recreation center, located at 11261 Crane St. The Red Cross later set up an overnight shelter there that housed 37 people, three dogs and a cat.
The agencies are also working with the National Weather Service regarding the weather in the area.
In a social media post, U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta said he was monitoring the fire.
“Clean energy facilities have a responsibility to be operated safely and to protect the surrounding communities,” Panetta wrote. “I urge this battery facility to be transparent and cooperate with authorities to address this emergency situation swiftly.”
The facility, owned by Texas-based Vistra Energy, 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, like solar and wind energy.
Because the sun doesn’t shine at night and the wind doesn’t blow all the time, California has been increasingly relying on huge battery storage plants to capture electricity during the daytime and release it on the grid at night, reducing the risk of blackouts during hot summer months when demand is high.
Battery storage has increased sevenfold in the past five years in California, from 1,474 megawatts in 2020 to 10,383 megawatts by mid-2024, according to the California Energy Commission. A megawatt is enough electricity to run 750 homes.
The plant is located on the site of a now-shuttered 1950s-era PG&E natural gas plant, visible for its huge smokestacks near Moss Landing Harbor. The first phase of construction of the battery storage facility 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 another battery storage plant on the north side of the site that has hundreds of Tesla battery packs.
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.
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. 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.
Emergency officials said Friday that they don’t know how the fire started.
“Our company takes very seriously what happened last night and we are hurting today because we know primarily its impacted and disrupted the people who live around our site — our neighbors, our friends and businesses — and for that we’re sincerely sorry,” said Vistra spokesman Brad Watson.
State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, wrote a law after other fires on the site, requiring battery plant operators to develop emergency response and evacuation plans.
“This is very serious,” Laird said Friday. “We really need battery storage. But we really need to have everyone safe. We are going to have a big debate about those conflicting goals.”
Highway 1 remained closed Friday afternoon in both directions at Struve Road to the north and Molera Road to the south. There is no estimated time to reopen the roadway.
Santa Cruz Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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