MOSS LANDING — A major fire at a lithium battery storage plant flared up again early Friday afternoon after authorities said it smoldered most of the morning. The blaze continued to send smoke over the community of Moss Landing and the Elkhorn Slough area in northern Monterey County Friday, but firefighters sounded a note of optimism. Chief Joel Mendoza of the North County Fire Protection District said at a Friday morning press conference that the fire, which forced evacuations around the facility, had died down significantly by 8:30 a.m., down from its peak about 12 hours earlier. “I’m happy to announce at this point that most of the fire is out,” Mendoza said at 10 a.m. Friday. “We have very little active fire, very little products of combustion being released into the atmosphere.” MORE BATTERIES ON FIRE: Burning Teslas, fried battery storage systems add to toxic mix hindering LA wildfire cleanup The evacuations remained in place at 11 a.m. for about 1,200 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 closed Highway 1 and raged out of control Thursday night, sending up huge flames and clouds of hazardous black smoke. It was reported around 3 p.m. at the plant, Monterey County spokesman Nicholas Pasculli said. Authorities said the highway remained closed Friday morning and likely would not be opened again until the evacuation order was lifted. Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto said there had 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. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES: Drone images display stunning devastation from Palisades fire At 11 p.m. Thursday, Monterey County’s emergency alert system advised residents to stay indoors, keep their windows and doors closed, turn off their ventilation systems and limit outdoor exposure. There were no other updates after that. Fire crews did not engage with the fire but rather waited for it to burn out on its own. 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. Mendoza said the fire suppression system, which had worked in prior situations, wasn’t sufficient and the fire overtook the system. The county set up an evacuation center at the Castroville Recreation Center. The Red Cross set up an overnight shelter that housed 37 people, three dogs and a cat. Highway 1 was closed in both directions between Highway 183 and Struve Road. There was no estimated time to reopen the roadway. “We are taking this incredibly seriously,” said state assemblyperson Dawn Addis, the area’s representative in the state legislature. She said she planned to visit the evacuation center again Friday. On Thursday night, Pasculli said the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office had called other agencies in the county to help with the emergency. A fire rages out of control at the Vistra battery storage plant, one of the world’s largest, in Moss Landing, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group) “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. 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 battery “Megapacks”. That facility did not appear to be burning Thursday evening. The California ISO, which operated the state’s electrical grid, said the agency was working with officials to determine what consequences there may be as a result of the blaze. “The power grid remains stable,” ISO spokesperson Anne Gonzales wrote in an email. “There are no impacts to system operations or reliablity.” The cause of the fire is still unknown and Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church called for a full independent investigation. “This is the fourth fire since 2019,” Church said. “This has got to be the last one.” A fire rages out of control at the Vistra battery storage plant, one of the world’s largest, in Moss Landing, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group) The facility 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, comprising 300 megawatts, was completed in 2020, and it was expanded to 750 megawatts in 2023. Personnel at the Vistra plant called the North Monterey County Fire Protection District for assistance Thursday afternoon after a fire was detected in the 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. 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. Related Articles Environment | Wittingly or not, LA city, county officials chose fewer firefighters, more OT pay Environment | Fire in UC Riverside physics building prompts evacuations, hazmat response Environment | Little Mountain fire in San Bernardino stopped at 34 acres Environment | Fire destroys downtown San Bernardino building, people evacuated Environment | Fire in Riverside auto salvage yard causes lane closures on 215 Freeway 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,” State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who wrote the bill, said 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.” 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. Smoke and flames are seen from Castroville as a fire at the Vistra battery storage plant burns in Moss Landing, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group) A fire rages out of control at the Vistra battery storage plant, one of the world’s largest, in Moss Landing, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)