Nearly three months after fire ripped through a battery energy storage plant in Moss Landing, some business owners say they are still feeling the impact. It comes at what is normally the start of the busy season for the tiny fishing and tourism community of about 200 people.
“We just don’t know what we’re going to do,” said Kim Solano, owner of The Haute Enchilada, a sprawling restaurant, gallery and event space in the middle of town.
After briefly reopening the restaurant two weeks after the January 16 fire, she closed it again on February 18 when the fire briefly re-ignited and triggered new warnings from the county for residents and businesses to close their windows and doors.
“It was just too hard to maintain a full restaurant of employees and food prep when there's so much uncertainty about opening and closing due to emergencies,” she said.
Since then, she has limited the business to private parties. Her full-time staff of 12 is down to two. Five short-term rental units on the property have gone unoccupied since the fire, she said. And while she recently began reopening the bar and art gallery a few days per week as an experiment, she said it is not enough to keep her business going.
“I don't know what to do to be really that sustainable at this point,” Solano said. “We're just trying to think outside the box every day.”
The closure of her restaurant is a body blow to a community that depends on traffic passing through, especially since it comes on top of two other popular restaurants closing prior to the fire. The popular Phil’s Fish Market relocated to Castroville in 2023, and The Whole Enchilada–which was owned by Solano’s parents–closed last year when they retired.
“I'm panicked for my community,” Solano said.
Solano, and her husband, Luis, are among several business owners who have filed lawsuits against Vistra Energy, the Texas company that owns the battery plant. The Solanos’ case, filed in federal court in San Francisco on February 27, accuses the company of negligence, and alleges the design of the plant was flawed. The suit seeks unspecified damages. Solano said she is also looking for peace of mind from Vistra.
“I know they're not going away, but I think that we need safety standards in place,” she said. “And I would love compensation, and my whole community would love compensation for what they've lost.”
Vistra declined to make a representative available for an interview. But in a statement, the company said it began working with businesses in the days following the fire. Soon after, the statement said, Vistra set up a claims program run by a third-party administrator. To date, Vistra said it has received “just over 50” claims, and has paid out more than half of them, totaling about $140,000.
Solano said she chose not to take part in the claims process.
“I didn't really think they had my best interest at heart, or the best interest of our community at heart,” she said.
But Vistra, which has told shareholders it faces at least $400 million in losses from the fire, said in its statement that it is working to help its neighbors in Moss Landing
“We understand that cash flow may be tight for small businesses, and we are committed to processing the claims efficiently,” the statement said. “We very much appreciate the tremendous amount of support and understanding we continue to receive from our fellow businesses.”
Some businesses in town said they are still managing to get by.
At Elkhorn Slough Safari, which operates pontoon boat tours on the nearby waterway, passengers were lining up at the dock in Moss Landing Harbor to board on a recent Friday morning, while in the office, employee Zane Toyon was taking bookings over the phone.
He said business has been brisk, but customers inevitably ask about the fire.
“We certainly get asked the question a lot,” he said. “'How did it affect the business?' 'Has there been any effects visible yet?'”
On both counts, Toyon said, it is too early to tell. He said he has a degree in marine science, and is concerned about the wildlife refuge.
“Just due to the nature of the likely chemicals released in the fire, any effect it's going to be having on the wildlife, and by extension, the business we have here, is likely years down the line,” he said.
Initial testing has shown no immediate environmental impacts.
Regardless, Kim Solano doubts her community will ever be the same.
“I think it'll change people's minds about buying property here,” she said. “We were violated, and we won't know for three to five years if there are repercussions from this major violation or not.”
On its website dedicated to the fire response, Vistra says that even now, the risk of new flare-ups from the fire remains. The website says that last month, workers successfully disconnected the undamaged batteries in the plant. But that is only the first phase in a nine-step cleanup operation, and there is no timetable yet for when it will be complete.
