A huge fire broke out inside a building at the Moss Landing Power Plant Thursday, forcing emergency crews to evacuate areas around Moss Landing and close the heavily traveled Highway 1 in both directions for hours.
The fire was reported around 3pm as a loud alarm boomed its warning over the Moss Landing Harbor. Shortly afterwards, a column of black smoke wafted into the sky alongside the pair of 500-foot concrete towers that were built in 1950.
Maia Carroll, Communications Management Analyst and Public Information Officer, sent out this warning: “The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office has issued evacuation orders for areas of Moss Landing South of the Elkhorn Slough, North of Molera Road and Monterey Dunes Way, and West of Castroville Blvd. and ElkHorn Road to the ocean for the following zones (MRY-B037, MRY-B047, MRY-B050, MRY-B051,MRY-B053, MRY-B058, MRY-B060). The Castroville Recreation Center is being opened as a Temporary Evacuation place, 11261 Crane St., Castroville.
Supervisor Glen Church responded to a command post in Castroville set up by North Monterey County Fire, the lead agency combating the blaze.
“There is no way to sugar coat this: It is a disaster,” he said. “This is a multi-agency response event. From what I understand, the fire is inside a concrete building and numerous batteries are on fire.”
As the fire developed and night fell, the orange glow could be seen for miles. Traffic clogged surface roads around the incident including downtown Castroville where northbound Hwy 1 traffic slogged through the city and aimed north on Hwy 156 toward Hwy 101.
Carroll said that as of 10:30pm Thursday about 40% of the 50,000 square-foot building containing batteries had burned and that all Vistra employees, law and fire personnel were safe and accounted for.
The incident marks the fourth fire at the Vistra Energy plant. When Vistra first installed a system of Tesla batteries at the plant in September, 2022, a week later a fire broke out and forced officials to close Hwy 1 in both directions for around 12 hours and evacuate the area.
Officials have also announced that all schools in the immediate area will be closed Friday.
“It is unknown how long this incident may last,” Carroll said Thursday night. “No active fire suppression is taking place, the batteries must burn themselves out. No water can be used. This is standard action for battery fires.”
On Thursday night Castroville Recreation Center was being transitioned to an overnight shelter managed by the American Red Cross. Around 1,214 people are in the evacuation zones and 7,676 acres were under evacuation.
Because of the type of fire, “air quality in the evacuation zones can be considered serious for people which is why they were asked to leave,” Carroll said.
If people who are not in the evacuation zones but have medical conditions or are concerned about smoke, they can stay indoors, close windows and use air purifiers.
The County is coordinating with the National Weather Service and Vistra Energy regarding weather which might impact movement of smoke from the fire.
For information, visit More/Mas Info: alertmry.org
