Monterey County officials said at noon Friday that the latest fire at the Vistra battery energy storage facility in Moss Landing was no longer an active threat to the surrounding community.
Officials said there was no active fire and no indication that hazardous materials from the incident posed a danger to nearby residents.
The update came during a noon Zoom press conference attended by several officials, including Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, North County Fire Protection District Interim Chief Jess Cortez, representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Vistra, and Andres Rosas of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office.
“At this particular point in the incident, there is no active fire,” Cortez said. “It is hot, smoldering at this particular point, but the incident is still within a scope that it could decrease or continue going.”
Officials continued to monitor the facility and conditions surrounding the site.
The fire comes as crews are working through the final and most difficult phase of cleaning up the Vistra facility following the massive January 2025 fire.
On Sept. 8, the EPA announced that crews had begun demolishing portions of the fire-damaged battery storage building to reach severely damaged batteries and other material that had previously been inaccessible.
Under EPA oversight, Vistra is removing and processing the remaining batteries and fire debris for transport to approved disposal facilities. Severely damaged batteries are being treated on-site before being transported.
During the work, crews are conducting air monitoring and sampling, fire and smoke watches, water collection and testing, battery temperature monitoring and dust suppression, according to the EPA.
The agency said damaged lithium-ion batteries pose an ongoing fire risk and can produce hydrogen fluoride and other flammable or toxic gases when they burn.
The January 2025 fire occurred in Vistra’s 300-megawatt battery energy storage facility, which contained about 100,000 lithium-ion battery modules. The EPA estimates about 55% of them were damaged.
Since then, nearly 40,000 intact batteries have been removed, de-energized and transported to EPA-approved recycling facilities in Nevada and Ohio.
The remaining cleanup is expected to be completed by mid-2027.
Church thanked responding agencies Friday for quickly gathering information and providing updates to the public. But he said the latest incident renews concerns about the safety of battery energy storage systems.
“I’m deeply disappointed and frustrated that we’re experiencing yet another fire at the Vistra facility in Moss Landing this morning,” Church said. “The fire is alarming for the community, and brings once again to the forefront that safety must be paramount in every way we deal with battery energy storage systems.”
Church said the incident underscores the volatility of lithium batteries, particularly during cleanup operations.
“While we need reliable and efficient battery energy storage systems, the key is that they really must be safe at all times, whether in an operation or in a cleanup as in this case,” he said.
According to Church, the batteries were charged, but they were not in operation with the state grid. That has been shut down since January 2025. Neither Vistra nor PG&E have connected to the grid since the fire.
