San Francisco Up to 1,500 people had to be evacuated after a fire at the biggest battery storage facility in the world in Northern California smouldered Friday after spewing poisonous smoke plumes into the air. The fledgling battery storage sector was also rocked by the fire. Fire Chief Joel Mendoza of the North County Fire Protection District of Monterey County stated that although the fire at the Vistra Energy lithium battery plant in Moss Landing produced massive flames and a great deal of smoke on Thursday, it had greatly subsided by Friday. Texas is home to Vistra. Mendoza stated, “That building is emitting very little, if any, of a plume.” According to him, crews are waiting for the fire to extinguish itself rather than battling it. Lithium ion letting lithium ion battery fires burn out is not unusual because they burn very hot and are hard to put out.

Although there have been no reports of injuries, locals expressed worry about the release of dangerous gases into the atmosphere. About 100 miles south of San Francisco, the fire at the battery storage facility was just starting to have an impact.

Battery storage, which has just been utilized extensively in the past few years, is thought to be essential for supplying clean electricity to the grid during periods when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. However, lithium, which makes up almost 80% of the batteries, has a propensity for “thermal runaway,” which means that it can burn extremely hot and catch fire, releasing harmful gases.

Vistra sells energy to Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the nation’s largest utilities.

Nicholas Pasculli, a spokesman for Monterey County, said the fire did not spread outside the building. As of Friday, there were still evacuation orders in effect for 1,200 to 1,500 individuals, and residents were urged to shut off their air conditioners and close their windows.

There is no way to sugarcoat it. “This is a disaster,” Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church told KSBW-TV. Vistra’s senior director of community affairs, Brad Watson, stated that the Environmental Protection Agency is evaluating air quality at the site and that the business has recruited an air specialist to look for pollution in adjacent areas. According to Watson, Vistra will share the results as soon as they are available

.Kelsey Scanlon, director of Monterey County’s Department of Emergency Management, told reporters that the blaze’s release of hydrogen fluoride into the atmosphere is cause for alarm. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warn that hydrogen fluoride gas can irritate the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and nose, and that excessive exposure can be fatal.

During an emergency meeting of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on Friday, residents expressed concerns about air quality. “It doesn’t appear that the fire department had the appropriate fire retardants to minimize the fire and have to resort to actually letting it burn, exposing all of the residents, including Watsonville in Santa Cruz County, and this is extremely disturbing,” resident Silvia Morales said. Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto said air quality

Tina Nieto, Monterey County Sheriff, stated that air quality monitoring equipment had not detected any harmful chemicals in the air. She stated that the county was awaiting the arrival of a more advanced monitoring system Friday afternoon before lifting the evacuation order. Watson stated that the battery factory experienced two “overheating events” in 2021 and 2022 as a result of moist batteries. A third incident occurred in 2022 at the nearby Elkhorn battery factory, which is owned by PG&E, he said

.Lithium batteries make the power grid more stable and reduce the need for energy to be generated from fossil fuels, which release planet-warming gases. California was an early adopter of battery storage and leads the nation with more than 11 gigawatts of utility-scale storage online, which can meet nearly half of the demand on the state’s main grid for four hours per day.

Experts say lithium batteries are a safe technology that are essential for lowering carbon emissions and making grids more reliable. But they are a significant fire risk if they are damaged or overheat.

We are not convinced that this incident could materially shift the national trend of growing grid scale battery deployment,” said Timothy Fox, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners, a non-partisan energy research firm.

“Our top priority is the safety of our community and our personnel, and Vistra deeply appreciates the continued assistance of our local emergency responders,” Jenny Lyon, a Vistra spokesman, said in a statement. According to Jodie Lutkenhaus, a chemical engineering professor at Texas A&M University, safer batteries that can be utilized on the grid are needed. Some changes, such as improved fire control measures, can be done to lessen fire dangers with lithium batteries, according to Lutkenhaus, “but the only way to really address the problem is to use a safer technology.” Scientists are developing water-based and redox flow batteries, but they have yet to reach commercial size. Lithium iron phosphate batteries are a viable option because they are highly stable, although they still carry

It was unclear what caused this latest fire. Vistra said in a statement that after it was detected, everyone at the site was evacuated safely. After the fire is out, an investigation will begin.