1000’s Instructed to Evacuate as Fireplace Breaks Out at Calif. Battery Plant

Greater than 1,200 folks have been informed to evacuate after a hearth broke out at a battery plant in California.

On Thursday, Jan. 16, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Workplace confirmed on X (previously referred to as Twitter) that evacuation orders had been issued following the blaze, which occurred at Moss Touchdown Energy Plant at round 3 p.m. native time, per CNN.

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s workplace informed the outlet that the fireplace was not related to the Los Angeles wildfires.

The blaze was nonetheless burning however hadn’t gone past the power as of the morning of Friday, Jan. 17, Monterey County spokesperson Nicholas Pasculli informed PEOPLE.

“The evacuation order remains to be in impact, it is affecting roughly 1200-1500 folks,” he stated, confirming it coated round 7600 acres.

Residents within the Moss Touchdown, Prunedale and Elkhorn communities, the northern a part of the county of Monterey, have been affected, and along with county and state officers, the U.S. Environmental Safety Company is on location “doing air high quality and chemical monitoring,” Pasculli informed PEOPLE.

The plant is owned by the Texas-based firm Vistra Power, and Pasculli informed PEOPLE they’ve additionally been doing air monitoring, and are “cautiously optimistic” concerning the readings they’re getting in the meanwhile.

He stated that they’d been “profitable in getting 100% assist and cooperation from the residents for the evacuation,” confirming that there have been “no accidents or deaths,” whereas thanking the neighborhood and their first responders.

“It is a full out effort to get this case manageable so folks can return again to their houses as shortly and safely as potential,” he informed PEOPLE, insisting that the “primary precedence” was “the protection of the residents and first responders.”

Pasculli wasn’t capable of present an replace on what precipitated the fireplace, insisting that will likely be a part of the investigation.

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Clouds of “hazardous black smoke” and “large flames” have been seen on the plant on Thursday, The Mercury Information reported.

The CAL FIRE San Mateo – Santa Cruz Unit X account posted, “From @sccounty Replace at 8:45 PM on 1/16/25 – Because of an ongoing giant fireplace in Moss Touchdown, Santa Cruz County Public Well being officers are advising residents to remain indoors, hold home windows and doorways closed, restrict out of doors publicity, and switch off air flow methods.”

In an 11 p.m. replace on Thursday, KSBW-TV reported that the blaze had “exploded into an enormous inferno” earlier that night, however the fireplace appeared to have since gone down virtually eight hours after it began.

Vistra Power stated in a earlier information launch that the ability plant was the “largest of its form on the planet” following a 2023 enlargement.

An organization spokesperson stated in an announcement, per the Related Press, “Our prime precedence is the protection of the neighborhood and our personnel, and Vistra deeply appreciates the continued help of our native emergency responders.”

The ability, which is about 77 miles south of San Francisco, “incorporates tens of hundreds of lithium batteries,” in keeping with the AP. The information company said that regardless of the batteries being “essential for storing electrical energy from such renewable vitality sources as photo voltaic vitality,” fires will be tough to place out if a blaze happens.

The North County Fireplace Safety District of Monterey, Vistra Power and the Monterey County Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t instantly reply when contacted by PEOPLE for added info.