A fire at Moss Landing Power Plant in Monterey Bay, California triggered evacuation orders and the closure of a portion of the state’s Highway 1 on Thursday night, as authorities tried to determine what caused the fire at one of the world’s largest grid battery storage facilities.
A file photo of the Vistra Zero battery storage facility at the Moss Landing Power Plant in Moss ... [+]
The Monterey County Sheriff's Office issued evacuation orders for areas near the Moss Landing Power Plant at 7 p.m. local time, a few hours after the fire broke out.
Before issuing the evacuation orders, the sheriff’s office had urged residents in the area to close windows and shut off air systems “out of an abundance of caution.”
The fire was first detected in the plant’s 300-megawatt grid battery storage facility on Thursday afternoon and all plant personnel were evacuated from the site, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing a spokesperson from the site’s operator Vistra Energy.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, but the report said an investigation would begin after the fire is extinguished.
This is a developing story.