Fire at Moss Landing battery plant spurs evacuations, road closures

The blaze broke out late Thursday at one of the world’s largest battery storage plants​

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 Thursday afternoon at a battery storage plant in Moss Landing in northern Monterey County.

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.

“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.

“There’s no way to sugar coat it. This is a disaster, is what it is,” Monterey County Supervisor Glen Church told KSBW-TV. “This is extremely disconcerting.”


Complete Article:

Fire at Moss Landing battery plant spurs evacuations, road closures

The blaze broke out late Thursday at one of the world’s largest battery storage plants

www.montereyherald.com

 

[Baby Yoda]

That's gonna be really tough to contain.

 

[1LoverofGod]

That's gonna be really tough to contain.

Reports on the Southern California fires have been saying that the fires have been causing serious lung problems and could be toxic and hazardous to health.

Can you imagine the toxicity in the smoke from this fire getting into people's lungs?
This is not good.
Praying for God's intervention to quickly get this fire out

 

[mattfivefour]

One thing that has amazed me is in the footage of the firefighters at work, I noticed that while some wore eye protection, almost none of them wore any breathing protection, even when they were in the smoke and the ashes. Is that not very dangerous?

 

[Andy C]

One thing that has amazed me is in the footage of the firefighters at work, I noticed that while some wore eye protection, almost none of them wore any breathing protection, even when they were in the smoke and the ashes. Is that not very dangerous?

From personal experiences from fighting wildfires in northern CA when I was 19, for that year, none of us ever wore a mask more than a few minutes. Between the heat, extremely tired from being on a hand crew, masks made the task impossible. I would cough a few days afterwards, but that was the extent of it.

Fighting fires in a city would be a whole different ball game as many houses, cars, storage facilities, factories, have toxic materials and that could be a serious issue for the city fire fighters.

 

[mattfivefour]

These were firefighters I saw fighting fires among the mansions in the Hollywood Hills and in Pacific Palisades. That's why I asked.