Flames and smoke broke out early Friday at the Moss Landing power plant, prompting shelter-in-place warnings, road closures, and a scramble to account for workers at the same waterfront site where a massive battery fire burned for days in January 2025. Firefighters were called to the facility along Monterey Bay and Highway 1 for a reported structure fire, with crews arriving to find flames on the north side of the plant.
According to KSBW, firefighters were evacuating the facility and accounting for plant personnel as the response unfolded. Monterey County fire officials reported the new blaze at the battery power storage plant, according to the Mercury News, and the California Highway Patrol's traffic incident website reported the fire was first noted at 6:19 a.m. as a possible fire in the power plant area, with a report by 6:30 a.m. that a big fire was burning behind the plant, and an indication that a whole building appeared to be on fire.
Shelter-in-Place Orders and Road Closures
The North County Fire Protection District issued an alert at 7:01 a.m. about the response and urged residents in MRY-B050 to close windows and doors, shut off air systems until further notice, and avoid the area, according to Monterey County's emergency information site. The California Highway Patrol closed Dolan Road at Highway 1 at 7:11 a.m., and the same account from KSBW's report notes Dolan Road was placed under a hard closure between Highway 1 and Via Tanques Road, while Highway 1 itself remained open to through traffic.
The North Monterey County Unified School District said all schools would stay open Friday, though students and staff at four schools were required to remain indoors during recess, breaks and lunch until further notice, per the same KSBW report. The Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve also announced it had closed Friday.
Echoes of the 2025 Battery Fire
The Moss Landing site, a former electric power plant operated by Texas-based Vistra, has been described as one of the world's largest battery power storage sites. It was the site of a major battery fire in January 2025 that burned for several days, according to the Mercury News, an event that also prompted an investigation by the governor's office at the time.
That earlier blaze burned between 55% and 80% of the facility's roughly 100,000 lithium-ion batteries, per Inside Climate News. A separate account from Innovation News Network put the damaged share at approximately 55%. The cause of that 2025 fire is still unknown, Inside Climate News reports, and cleanup and demolition work remain under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversight, including the removal and processing of severely damaged batteries and remnant material, according to the county's emergency site.
Ongoing Cleanup and Community Pushback
Inside Climate News reported that further demolition would begin in mid-2026. Monterey County also released soil-sampling results in June.
The fallout from the 2025 fire has rippled beyond Moss Landing. Peer-reviewed research found that a thin layer of dust containing heavy-metal particulates settled in Elkhorn Slough after the blaze, per Inside Climate News. That outlet and KAZU both note the incident has fed public opposition to planned or proposed battery-storage projects in communities across California.
Safety Rules Tightened Statewide
California regulators have moved to tighten oversight of battery-storage facilities since the 2025 fire. The California Public Utilities Commission adopted modifications to its General Order 167 in March 2025, adding new safety standards for battery energy storage systems, according to Sheppard Mullin. A newer state law, SB 283, now requires large energy-storage project applicants to consult local fire authorities on safety and emergency plans at least 30 days before submitting applications, and bars those installations from beginning operation until inspected by fire authorities after construction.
California regulators have continued addressing battery-storage safety in the wake of the 2025 fire. The American Clean Power Association has pointed to a separate incident involving a Tesla Megapack at Moss Landing in which air-quality testing showed no hazards to human health, and the trade group notes that the industry works to address safety concerns following high-profile fires.
