A massive fire broke out at a California power plant Friday morning, threatening one of the world’s largest battery energy storage facilities.
An official with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office told the BBC that the fire had started a few hours earlier in a building containing lithium-ion batteries.
The Moss Landing power plant, operated by Vistara Corp, was evacuated, as were people in the surrounding area. There is no information about anyone being injured.
A Monterey sheriff’s spokesman said officials are not actively fighting the fire, and are instead leaving the building and batteries to burn on the advice of fire experts.
Hundreds of people have been ordered to evacuate and part of Highway 1 in Northern California has been closed.
The Moss Landing power plant, located about 77 miles south of San Francisco, is owned by Texas-based company Vistra Energy and houses thousands of lithium batteries, The Independent reports.
Batteries are important for storing electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar power, but if they catch fire they can be extremely difficult to extinguish.
“There is no way to sugar coat this. It’s a disaster, that’s what it is,” Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church told KSBW-TV. But he said he did not expect the fire to spread beyond the concrete building it was engulfed in.
North Monterey County Unified School District announced that all schools and offices will be closed Friday due to the fire.
Officials said the fire is not linked to existing wildfires in Los Angeles or other parts of the state.
