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 Monday afternoon at a battery storage plant in Moss Landing in northern Monterey County.
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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.
“An evacuation order is not a suggestion,” Pasculli told KSBW TV at 7:30 pm. “It’s really important that people do comply with that order for their safety. The county and all our partners are throwing every resource behind this incident that we have. People need to remain calm in this situation and everybody will get through it.”
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 that the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department has called other agencies in the county to help with the emergency.
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.
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 another battery storage plant on the north side of the site that has hundreds of Tesla battery packs. That facility did not appear to be burning by 8 p.m.
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.
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.
Road closures are also in place at Dolan Road and Castroville Boulevard, Highway 1 at Salinas Road and Highway 1 at Merritt Street, according to the sheriff’s office.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
