A lithium battery fire that erupted at a Moss Landing power plant continues to smolder and Monterey County residents are asking public officials and the facility’s leaders what health risks they now face.
The fire erupted around 3 p.m. on Thursday at the Moss Landing Power Plant. The facility is a natural gas-powered electricity generation plant operated by Texas-based Vistra Energy. The facility also has two battery storage stations owned by PG&E and Vistra.
On Friday morning, Monterey County officials and Vistra Energy executives, who operate the power plant, gave an update on the fire at a press conference.
Supervisor Glenn Church said the incident could “best be described as a worse case scenario.” He went on to say that the “disaster” is more than just a fire.
“This is a wake-up call for this industry,” he said. “If we’re going to be moving ahead with sustainable energy, we need to have a safe battery system in place.”
Live updates: Moss Landing under evacuation orders after battery power plant catches fire
A fire at the Vistra Power Plant continues to burn on Friday, January 17, 2025.
What fire preventions were in place?
Mendoza said crews were called to the plant around 3 p.m. on Thursday.
When the first team arrived, they saw smoke coming from the building and confirmed that at least one battery was on fire.
Mendoza said the magnitude of the emergency has stretched their small fire service thin. The fire district has three fire stations and 34 firefighters.
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The Vistra facility is equipped with a fire suppression system, but that system failed to do its job on Thursday, Fire Chief Joel Mendoza said.
A fire mitigation system that was “water-based” was built into the design of the facility, according to Vistra officials, and part of what the company will be investigating is why the mitigation did not work “as designed.”
Lithium battery fire erupts: Why are these fires so difficult to put out?
Have harmful chemicals been detected?
The fire burned hot and for many hours, firefighters said.
As the fire grew on Thursday night, roughly 1,500 north county residents were placed under evacuation orders. Additionally, 37 people, one cat and three dogs were placed in an emergency overnight shelter, county officials said.
By Friday morning, the fire was smoldering and was being monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Vistra staff. Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and the county’s health department have been notified of the incident, Mendoza said. Hazmat crews also responded to the incident.
So far, no hydrogen fluoride gas had been detected, but Mendoza said that the finding was preliminary.
Evacuation orders were still in place by Friday afternoon as officials waited for more advanced monitoring system information before giving the all clear.
Pete Ziegler, Regional Vice President at Vistra Energy in charge of the Moss Landing power plant and energy storage facility site speaks at the press conference about the fire that broke out at the facility the night before requiring the evacuation of 1500 residents on Jan. 17, 2025 in Castroville, Calif.
Vistra officials respond
Brad Watson, senior director of community affairs at Vistra Energy told the audience on Friday morning that safety is the top priority at Vistra.
“We take very seriously what happened last night,” he said. “We are hurting today because we know primarily its impact on the people who live around our site.”
He apologized to the community for what happened but assured residents that Vistra “does business the right way.”
Pete Ziegler, regional vice president at Vistra Energy, who oversees the Moss Landing facility, told concerned residents that the company would make the findings from the incident public.
“We do business with our communities,” he said. “We care about our communities, and we believe you deserve all the information that we have.”
EPA monitoring is happening close to the site, said Ziegler and Vistra is sharing their internal data with the federal agency and contracted with CTEH air monitoring consultants to get a complete analysis.
Local environmental health staff are coordinating with Vistra and EPA on the air monitoring reports, according to county environmental health officials.
Calls for an independent investigation
Although the immediate concern was the public’s safety, Church said he is also looking ahead.
“There must be accountability,” he said during Friday morning’s press conference.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors are calling for an independent investigation as this marks the fourth fire at the Vistra’s facility since 2019.
“This has got to be the last one,” Church said. “This never should have happened.”
This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Moss Landing battery plant fire a ‘wake-up call’ for industry
