A fire at a Moss Landing battery plant has forced evacuations, closed schools and created a traffic nightmare. It was still burning early Friday morning.
Authorities said the fire started at around 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon at Vistra Corporation’s Energy Storage facility, a 750 megawatt battery plant that the company says is the largest of its kind in the world. And because the fire involves batteries, Monterey County officials said that all they can do is let the fire burn itself out. There was no word on how long that will take.
Fire officials will update the Monterey Board of Supervisors in an Emergency Board Meeting Friday at 8:30 a.m. at the Castroville Library. The public portion will be available on Zoom.
In the meantime, some 1,200 residents in the area have been evacuated from their homes. (The mandatory evacuation includes areas of Moss Landing south of the Elkhorn Slough, north of Molera Road and Monterey Dunes Way, and west of Castroville Boulevard, and Elkhorn Road to the ocean.)
Elsewhere, authorities are advising residents in a large area of Monterey County, from Watsonville to just north of Marina, to stay indoors, keep doors and windows closed, and turn off ventilation systems. Santa Cruz County had issued a similar advisory Thursday night. But the county sent out an updated alert Friday morning saying that "no imminent significant threat exists." The advisory said that sensitive groups, such as those with respiratory difficulties, should monitor air conditions and keep windows closed while at home.
The North Monterey County Unified School District, which serves some 4,500 students in communities including Moss Landing, Castroville and Prunedale is closed today.
And there are some major road closures including Highway 1 in both directions between Molera Road and Struve Road. There are also multiple closures along Elkhorn Road, Dolan Road, and Castroville Boulevard.
The fire sent flames and smoke hundreds of feet into the air, raising concerns about toxic fumes. Officials said Vistra is monitoring air quality around the plant in coordination with Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.
There is no word yet on the cause of the fire, which authorities said has destroyed about 40 percent of the building.
Texas-based Vistra completed its most recent phase of construction in the plant in 2023, nearly doubling its capacity. The innovative technology collects and stores electricity in thousands of battery units at the site then supplies it to the power grid.
There were previous fires at the Vistra plant in 2021 and 2022.
