A fire erupted at a US battery storage facility – one of the largest in the world – on 16 January and burned for several days in northern California. The incident at Vistra Corp.’s 3000-megawatt facility in Moss Landing, forced evacuations for around 1,700 people.
The cause of the blaze is unknown, however fire officials said that the fire was able to spread through the factory after a fire prevention system failed to work as designed. Following the outbreak of the fire, the facility was evacuated and no injuries were reported.
A large plume of black smoke meant that evacuations were ordered for several nearby towns with more than 1,700 people being moved away from the area while firefighters tackled the blaze. The plant contains tens of thousands of lithium-ion batteries and around 40% of the facility is thought to have been destroyed.
Fire officials said on 19 January that there were no longer any fire suppression efforts active at the site, although was the blaze had been contained to the factory itself and firefighters were monitoring the situation to allow the fire to burn itself out.
In October 2024, the town of Fredericktown in Missouri was partially evacuated after a fire broke out at a nearby 225,000-square-foot facility which is one of largest lithium-ion processing facilities in the world. No deaths or injuries were reported however the facility suffered significant damage with the roof partially collapsing.
