A fire broke out on Thursday afternoon at Moss Landing, one of the largest battery power plants in the world, located in California. By the evening of the same day, the fire could not be extinguished, and local residents were ordered to evacuate.
As the fire was not extinguished by Thursday evening, about 1,500 people were ordered to leave Moss Landing and the Elkhorn Slough area.
The Moss Landing power plant, about 124 kilometres south of San Francisco, is owned by Texas-based Vistra Energy and stores tens of thousands of lithium batteries. They are important for storing electricity from renewable sources such as solar power. However, if they catch fire, it becomes extremely difficult to put out the fire.
In a commentary for KSBW-TV, Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church said it’s hard to sugarcoat the situation, it’s a disaster. Church also added that he didn’t expect the fire to spread beyond the concrete building where it originated. The epicentre of the fire is in a 300MW battery storage facility.
According to The Mercury News, the Vistra plant fires in 2021 and 2022 caused by a faulty fire suppression system. This caused some units to overheat. It’s not yet clear what caused Thursday’s fire. Vistra said in a statement that all people on the scene were safely evacuated after the fire was discovered. Once the fire is extinguished, an investigation into the cause of the incident will begin.
Vistra spokesperson Jenny Lyon emphasised that the top priority right now is the safety of the public and plant personnel.
The North Monterey Unified School District announced that all schools and offices will be closed Friday due to the fire. Before ordering evacuations, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office urged area residents to close windows and turn off air conditioning systems “as a precautionary measure.”
