Massive Fire at Monterey County Battery Plant Spews Plumes of Smoke, Forces Evacuations

Updated 3:27 p.m. Friday

Iman Floyd-Carroll, whose home sits between the Monterey County towns of Moss Landing and Castroville, had just left her house to get dinner with friends when she noticed an orange glow in the sky.

For the last two weeks, fires have been top of mind for Floyd-Carroll. She moved to Los Angeles County almost five months ago but was forced to evacuate from her home in Runyon Canyon after the Sunset Fire broke out last week. Though the evacuation order was lifted, Floyd-Carroll decided to return to her Bay Area hometown for a moment of reprieve.

“There’s an omnipresent feeling of discomfort,” she said. “To have to relocate under such short notice, under such intense conditions, it’s been really emotionally taxing. I definitely feel spiritually and emotionally exhausted.”

But only a few days after arriving in Moss Landing, Floyd-Carroll was forced to pack up and leave once again after a huge fire erupted at a nearby battery plant on Thursday afternoon. She said she began packing family relics and an emergency bag as soon as she heard sirens in the distance. A formal evacuation order was issued for her neighborhood around 7 p.m., Floyd-Carroll said.

The fire at a facility operated by Vistra Corporation, an electricity company that helps supply energy to the power grid, has closed schools and roads and forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 Moss Landing residents as it sends up a plume of smoke, authorities said.

The plant at Moss Landing is one of the world’s largest storage facilities for lithium batteries, which are used to store solar power and other forms of electricity. The facility, a vital part of California’s effort to shift toward renewable energy and sustainability, contains over 100,000 batteries and can store up to 750 megawatts of electricity, according to a Vistra Corporation press release.

The California Energy Commission said 52,000 megawatts of storage is needed to meet its green energy goals by 2045.

County officials warned that because the fire involves batteries, it’s impossible to manually stop the burn. All residents could do was wait for the fire to burn itself out.

Areas in Moss Landing currently under mandatory evacuation orders include:

• South of Elkhorn Slough.
• North of Molera Road and Monterey Dunes Way.
• West of Castroville Boulevard and Elkhorn Road.

Monterey County authorities are also advising residents in neighboring areas, including Watsonville and Marina, to take protective measures such as remaining indoors and closing windows and vents.

Highway 1 has been shut down between Molera Road and Struve Road, in addition to several local roads. The North Monterey County Unified School District, which services several cities in the area, also announced a closure in response to the fire.

At a press conference on Friday morning, county officials said the fire is beginning to slow down and that the imminent danger for residents has passed. No casualties have been reported.

According to county officials, there were some concerns about toxic hydrofluoride fumes being released into the air by the fire and smoke. But on Friday morning, officials informed residents that there had been no signs of dangerous toxins in the air.

“We have very little active flame. We have very little products of combustion being put into the atmosphere,” said Joel Mendoza, chief of the North Monterey County Fire Protection District. “There was no hazardous hydrogen fluoride gas being emitted by the batteries. At no point did I get a report back that there was any of that being picked up by the monitors.”

Advanced monitoring equipment will be brought in to provide emergency responders and officials with more detailed information.

Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church said the fire should be a wake-up call to industry leaders in sustainable energy. He echoed concerns shared with him by constituents about the battery plant’s proximity to environmentally significant areas like Elkhorn Slough and Monterey Bay.

“This is the fourth fire at that site since 2019,” Church said at a press conference. “This transition to a more sustainable energy source should not come before the safety of our families and our environment.”

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, and nearly 40% of the building has been destroyed.

Floyd-Carroll said the experience has left her feeling uneasy. She’s preparing to return to Los Angeles County to avoid the smoke and possible fumes that may linger as a result of the Moss Landing fire. Fortunately, emergency responders were able to preserve the area around her home in L.A.

“At the moment, we’re still waiting for guidance as if it’s safe to return to that area of Moss Landing and Castroville,” Floyd-Carroll said. “It’s been hard to maintain a sense of safety and to go about business as usual time and time again.”

County officials told the press on Friday that they would be calling for an independent investigation into what caused the fire.