MOSS LANDING – Highway 1 was closed and evacuations were ordered within the Moss Landing community and Elkhorn Slough area after a serious fire broke out Thursday afternoon at a battery storage plant in Moss Landing in northern Monterey County.

The fire, which burned uncontrolled Thursday night and produced huge flames and dangerous clouds of black smoke, was reported at the ability on Highway 1 around 3 p.m., Monterey County spokesman Nicholas Pasculli said.

RELATED: Energy Storage at Moss Landing: A Smokey Challenge for a New Chapter

“It is imperative that residents obey the evacuation order and follow the instructions of the police and fire departments,” Pasculli said. “In this situation, we take the protection of life and property very seriously. We urge people to follow the evacuation order and move to a safe location.”

Evacuations of about 1,500 people have been ordered for areas from Moss Landing south of Elkhorn Slough, north of Molera Road and Monterey Dunes Way and west of Castroville Boulevard and Elkhorn Road to the ocean, he said.

Pasculli said the Monterey County Sheriff's Office called other agencies within the county to help with the emergency.

“It is a serious incident,” he said. “All resources from the county and our neighboring jurisdictions were deployed to assist with this incident.”

The plant belongs to the Texas company Vistra Energy and is considered one of the most important battery storage power plants on this planet. It incorporates tens of hundreds of lithium batteries that store electricity generated through the day from solar and other sources to be used at night. Such battery storage plants are a vital a part of California's efforts to convert most of its electricity generation to renewable sources.

“You can’t sugarcoat it. “This is a disaster,” Monterey County Supervisor Glen Church told KSBW-TV. “This is extremely disturbing.”

Church said the fireplace was “contained” in a concrete constructing whose roof had collapsed.

“We don't think there's any real danger of it expanding outward and penetrating further into where it's inside,” he said. “There are a lot of batteries in there and the system is on fire quite a lot.”

The plant is positioned on the location of a now-closed Fifties PG&E Moss Landing natural gas plant, visible from its huge smokestacks near Moss Landing Harbor. The first phase was accomplished in 2020 and expanded to 750 megawatts in 2023. Vistra sells the electricity stored there to PG&E, which also owns a separate 182-megawatt, 256-tesla battery storage facility on the north side of the location. “Megapack” battery packs. This system didn’t look like burning at 8 p.m

Employees on the Vistra plant called the North Monterey County Fire Protection District for assistance after a fireplace was discovered on the 300-megawatt Phase I energy storage facility, company spokeswoman Jenny Lyon said in an email to this news organization.

Lyon said all personnel were safely evacuated.

“Our top priority is the safety of the community and our staff,” she said, “and Vistra greatly appreciates the continued support of our local emergency responders.”

Lyon said the reason for the fireplace has not yet been determined, but an investigation will begin once the fireplace is extinguished.

Lithium battery fires are notoriously difficult to place out. They burn at high temperatures and may emit toxic gases that may cause respiratory problems, skin burns and eye irritation.

There have been other fires at the ability.

Fires broke out on the Vistra plant on September 4, 2021 and February 14, 2022. Investigations revealed that they were brought on by a malfunction of a sprinkler system that released water and caused several units to overheat.

Then in September 2022, a fireplace broke out at PG&E's Elkhorn battery plant. Police closed Highway 1 for 12 hours. An investigation determined the cause was an improperly installed vent guard on considered one of the 256 units, which allowed rainwater to enter and short-circuit the batteries. There were no injuries to firefighters, PG&E employees or the general public.

Governor Gavin Newsom then signed a law requiring battery storage power plants in California to work with local fire departments to develop emergency plans and increase fire protection.

“Expanding the state’s battery storage is critical to achieving our clean energy goals,” state Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who authored the bill, said in an interview last yr. “But we also need to ensure that these facilities have safety systems in place to protect the health and well-being of workers and surrounding communities.”

Last summer, after two fires broke out at San Diego County battery storage facilities, San Diego County regulators asked county officials to impose stricter rules that may restrict battery storage facilities near homes, schools and other facilities. And when Vistra proposed constructing a big battery plant in Morro Bay, residents there approved a measure on the November ballot that they hoped would block construction.

Battery storage has increased sevenfold in California over the past five years, from 1,474 megawatts in 2020 to 10,383 megawatts last summer. One megawatt is sufficient to power 750 households.

On Thursday evening, the Castroville Recreation Center at 11261 Crane St. served as a brief evacuation point for individuals who needed to depart their homes.

Highway 1 is closed in each directions between Highway 183 and Struve Road. There isn’t any estimated time for the roadway to reopen.

Originally published: January 16, 2025 at 7:40 pm PST

PRAGUE (AP) — The death toll rose in central European countries on Sunday after days of heavy rain caused widespread flooding and compelled mass evacuations.

Several Central European countries are already affected by severe flooding, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Slovakia and Hungary might be next to be hit, as a low-pressure system from northern Italy has been dumping record rainfall within the region since Thursday.

Six people have died in Romania, one each in Austria and Poland. According to police, 4 individuals are missing within the Czech Republic after being swept away by the floodwaters.

It's not over yet

Most parts of the Czech Republic have been affected, with authorities issuing the best flood warning for around 100 locations across the country, however the situation has been worst in two northeastern regions, which have seen the heaviest rainfall in recent days, including the Jeseníky Mountains near the Polish border.

In the town of Opava, as much as 10,000 people (out of a population of around 56,000) were asked to go away their homes and move to higher ground. Rescue staff took people to safety by boat after they arrived in a neighbourhood flooded by the raging Opava River.

“There is no reason to wait,” Mayor Tomáš Navrátil told Czech public radio, saying the situation was worse than the last devastating flood in 1997, which became referred to as the “flood of the century.”

“We must focus on saving lives,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Czech public television on Sunday. His government was as a result of meet on Monday to evaluate the damage.

The worst “is not yet behind us,” the prime minister warned as floods ravaged the country.
President Petr Pavel sounded more optimistic, saying: “It is obvious that we have learned a lesson from the last crisis.”

At least 4 missing and villages cut off

Thousands of individuals also needed to be evacuated in the just about completely flooded towns of Krnov and Cesky Tesin. In Ostrava and Bohumin, the Oder, which flows into Poland, reached extreme water levels, triggering mass evacuations.

Ostrava, the capital of the region, is the third largest Czech city. Mayor Jan Dohnal said the town would need to expect significant traffic disruptions in the approaching days. Almost no trains were running within the region.

Towns and villages within the Jeseniky Mountains, including the town center of Jeseniky Mountains, were flooded by the raging waters and cut off from the skin world. Streets become rivers. The military sent a helicopter to assist with the evacuation.

Jesenik Mayor Zdenka Blistanova told Czech public television that several houses in her and other nearby towns had been destroyed by the floods. Numerous bridges and roads were also badly damaged.

Around 260,000 households across the country were without electricity on Sunday morning and traffic was paralyzed on many roads, including the principal D1 motorway.

A firefighter dies when Lower Austria is asserted a disaster area

A firefighter “slipped on a staircase” while pumping out a flooded cellar within the town of Tulln, the pinnacle of the Lower Austrian fire service, Dietmar Fahrafellner, told reporters on Sunday.

The authorities declared the whole state of Lower Austria within the north-east of the country a disaster area. 10,000 emergency staff have to this point evacuated 1,100 houses there. Emergency personnel have begun establishing emergency shelters for residents who had to go away their homes as a result of the flooding.

The municipality of Lilienfeld in Lower Austria, with around 25,000 inhabitants, is cut off from the skin world. The authorities there asked residents to boil tap water as a precaution.

In Lower Austria, the situation along the Kamp River, which flows into the Danube, is especially dangerous.

The Ottenstein reservoir on the Kamp still has a buffer function, but could reach its limits in the subsequent few hours and further flooding could occur, experts say.

After an emergency meeting on the Interior Ministry in Vienna on Saturday afternoon, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer told journalists that the situation was “continuing to deteriorate”.

He said 2,400 soldiers were able to support relief efforts in Austria, with 1,000 of them being sent to the disaster area in Lower Austria where dams began to interrupt.

“We are experiencing difficult and dramatic hours in Lower Austria. For many Lower Austrians, these are probably the most difficult hours of their lives,” said Lower Austria's governor, Johanna Mikl-Leitner.

In Vienna, the Vienna River overflowed its banks, flooding houses and making it obligatory to evacuate houses near the river.

Romania reports further flood victims

Romanian authorities said on Sunday that two more people had died within the hard-hit eastern Romanian county of Galati, after 4 deaths were reported there a day earlier in consequence of unprecedented rainfall.

Dramatic floods in Poland

One person is believed to have died in floods within the southwest of Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday.

Tusk said the situation across the town of Klodzko, which has a population of 25,000 and is positioned in a valley within the Sudetes near the border with the Czech Republic, was “dramatic”. In some cases, helicopters were used to rescue people from rooftops.

In Glucholazy, the water overflowed a river dam and flooded streets and houses. Mayor Paweł Szymkowicz said: “We are drowning” and appealed to residents to evacuate to higher ground.

A vulnerable bridge in the town collapsed under the pressure of the flood, and in Stronie Śląskie, a police station constructing was destroyed after the floods broke through the town's dam. In the Kłodzko Valley region on the border with the Czech Republic, submerged cars might be seen in lots of places, while a brand new flood wave was expected there.

In the town of Jelenia Gora, which has a population of 75,000, streets in the town center were flooded after one in all the dams on the Bobr River broke. City authorities warned residents that they may need to evacuate as more flooding was moving toward the town.

Power and communications have been disrupted in some flooded areas, and a few regions may depend on the satellite-based Starlink service, Tusk said.

A hotter atmosphere as a result of human-induced climate change can result in more intense rainfall.

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Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, Philipp-Moritz Jenne and Stephanie Liechtenstein in Vienna and Stephen McGrath in Sibiu, Romania, contributed to this report.

Related Press

SAN BERNARDINO – Evacuations expanded Saturday as a wildfire raged with raging flames within the foothills of a national forest east of Los Angeles, amid a days-long heat wave that sent temperatures soaring above 100 degrees across the region.

The so-called Line Fire burned uncontrollably on the sting of the San Bernardino National Forest, about 105 kilometers east of Los Angeles. By Saturday afternoon, the fireplace had charred about 28 square kilometers of grassland and chaparral and left a thick, dark cloud of smoke over the world.

The fire broke out on Thursday evening and the cause is currently being investigated.

About 500 firefighters fought the fireplace, supported by helicopters and planes that dropped water and hovered over houses and hills.

Firefighters said the fireplace had the potential to “spread widely” over the following 12 hours.

The fire created thick clouds of smoke and flames could possibly be seen shooting across the mountain ridges.

No injuries were reported and no homes or other buildings were damaged or destroyed.

The National Weather Service said high temperatures reached 44 degrees Celsius (112 degrees Fahrenheit) in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, marking the third time since 1877 that a hot temperature of 44 degrees Celsius or higher has been reached there.

Officers and detectives from the Butte County Sheriff's Office arrested two suspects in a burglary that occurred while Cohasset residents were evacuating due to the Park Fire, in response to a news release Thursday evening.

A Cohasset resident, who was escorted to the community by a deputy sheriff on Tuesday, searched his home and reported that his Jeep, a generator and other items from his business had been stolen.

An investigation by the sheriff's office led Chico police to search out the stolen Jeep outside a residence on Jasper Drive later that day. Investigators then served a search warrant for that residence on Thursday, the news release said.

Officers said they found suspected drugs, firearms and stolen property within the apartment and arrested 48-year-old Joshua Emerson of Cohasset and 41-year-old Rose Sutton of Chico.

Investigators reported that they found evidence that gave them reason to imagine that each Emerson and Sutton knowingly went to Cohasset when the world was evacuated through the Park Fire. The release states that Emerson allegedly stole items and the Jeep from the person's business after which drove to Chico with Sutton.

Detectives also obtained a search warrant for Emerson's residence in Cohasset, but no results were reported.

Emerson was arrested on the Butte County Jail on suspicion of burglary, auto theft, conspiracy and petty theft. Sutton was arrested on suspicion of possession of stolen property and conspiracy. Both are charged with entering an evacuation area.

Another arrest

According to Megan McMann, BCSO public information coordinator, an investigation prior to the Park Fire led investigators to acquire a search warrant and search the pc of 56-year-old Michael Markham. A news release Thursday said investigators found greater than 600 images and diverse videos of kid pornography on the laptop, in addition to evidence BCSO said linked Markham because the owner.

According to the press release, detectives also executed a search warrant for Markham's Cohasset residence on July 31, a day the world was evacuated.

Markham was booked into the Butte County Jail on suspicion of possession of kid pornography, possession of over 600 images of kid pornography, and possession of kid pornography depicting sexual sadism.

Insurance claims

The press release states that State Farm will assist policyholders with filing claims and might assist in conducting virtual inspections once it’s protected to achieve this.

State Farm customers affected by the Park Fire can file their claim by calling 1-800-SFCLAIM or texting the word “CLAIM” to 62789.

Evacuation shelter might be closed

The evacuation shelter on the Neighborhood Church in Chico was scheduled to shut at 11:59 p.m. Friday as assistance was provided to all evacuees who needed shelter, in response to a Butte County news release Friday afternoon.

The county is asking residents returning home to choose up their pets on the small animal shelter at 2279 Del Oro Ave. in Oroville and the big animal shelter at 1985 Clark Road in Camelot Equestrian Park. Photos of pets on the small animal shelter will be found at 24petconnect.com/event/parkfire.

Originally published: August 4, 2024 at 3:47 am

The explosive spread of the park fire continued overnight and firefighters predict one other day of gusty winds and low humidity.

As of early Friday, it was 164,286 acres (256 square miles), CalFire said. That's greater than 4 times the scale of this yr's second-largest fire, Lake, which burned 38,664 acres in Santa Barbara County.

The map above shows the approximate extent of the Park Fire as a black line and the evacuation area in red.

CalFire investigators say the fireplace began when a person pushed a burning automobile down an embankment right into a brush-strewn ravine. A suspect has been arrested.

The evacuation orders covered greater than 630 square miles in Butte and Tehama counties, and extra areas were covered by the order on Friday.

At a press conference Thursday, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea expressed frustration that many residents weren’t complying with requests to evacuate the world. He pointed to the death toll from the 2018 Camp Fire and said, “I don't know how to keep saying this. People have to know their areas. … Also, you have to be prepared to evacuate the area.”

Honea said he encountered “numerous people unwilling to leave” within the evacuation zone in Cohasset Township on Wednesday evening, including three whose cars had run out of gas. The fire raged in Cohasset on Thursday.

Evacuation orders were issued late Thursday afternoon for Doe Mill Ridge in Butte County and for greater than 100 square miles of Tehama County north of the fireplace area. Warnings were issued for Helltown, Centerville and parts of Paradise.

A forest fire warning is in effect for the region until 11 p.m. Friday, indicating the weather conditions.

For more information on the evacuation zone, including warning areas, see Butte County Evacuation card or the Genasys Protect Card (Tehama County only).

Originally published: July 26, 2024 at 8:12 am

The Point Fire in Sonoma County, which broke out Sunday, has burned greater than 400 acres, destroyed some buildings and triggered evacuation orders near its source at Lake Sonoma, authorities said.

The fire also appears to be spreading to several wineries in the world.

Cal Fire reported that the hearth was first reported at 12:33 p.m. in an area about 12 miles northwest of Healdsburg, west of Geyserville. It is one among the greater than a dozen forest fires burning across the state.

As of 10 p.m. Sunday night, the state fire department said the hearth had spread to 468 acres and was 15 percent contained. There were no immediate reports of significant injuries, but Cal Fire wrote in a social media post, “We have confirmed reports of structures destroyed and are working on damage inspections regarding the type and number of structures.”

The post also said that the hearth had now spread south toward Mountain View Ranch Road and that several wineries on and south of that road had turn out to be in the trail of the hearth.

Evacuation orders have been issued for residents of Fall Creek Road, Stewarts Point-Skaggs Spring Road and West Dry Creek Road. Evacuation warnings have been issued for areas south of Lake Sonoma – warnings that tell residents to prepare to go away the areas.

Cal Fire said late Sunday that “crews are confident the threat to structures along the Upper Dry Creek Valley will diminish around sunset.”

As a results of the hearth, air quality from Healdsburg to Napa was rated unhealthy, in accordance with online readings from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The National Weather Service predicted that smoke The spread of the hearth would follow the identical trajectory from northwest to southeast.

According to Cal Fire, seven crews are battling the hearth, supported by greater than 20 pieces of kit, including three helicopters. The fire has reportedly consumed brush and fir trees and was fueled partly by northwest winds and low relative humidity.

Curiously, the Point Fire's origin was not subject to the National Weather Service's weekend warnings, although warnings were in effect in other parts of Sonoma County, in addition to in Napa, Solano and Sacramento counties.

The largest wildfire currently burning within the state is the Post Fire near Gorman in Los Angeles County, which was first reported Saturday afternoon and had burned 14,625 acres by Sunday evening. Authorities said the forest was 2 percent contained.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

Despite a wet winter and heavy snowpack, California's 2024 wildfire season began over the weekend with the state's largest fire of the 12 months, the Corral Fire south of Tracy and east of Livermore.

The fire broke out Saturday afternoon and raged uncontrolled into Sunday, injuring two firefighters, requiring evacuations, destroying a house and turning vast swathes of the once golden rolling hills into blackened wastelands.

According to Cal Fire statistics, the Corral Fire burned 14,000 acres in 24 hours, greater than the full area burned by the 1,253 wildfires in California to date this 12 months. The fire was 50% contained by Sunday evening, the agency said.

“We have a very, very abundant grass crop this year, and that is what led to the fire,” Cal Fire Captain Robert Foxworthy said Sunday afternoon.

Lush grasses that thrived on winter rains are actually dead or dying and drying out across the state. Areas just like the East Bay Hills are especially in danger when winds pick up, as they did Saturday when the hearth broke out around 2:30 p.m. and winds of as much as 40 mph and even stronger gusts spread the hearth to almost 10,000 acres in a matter of hours, Foxworthy said.

Those drying grasses are prone to result in “an increase in grass fires” in the approaching weeks, Craig Clements, a professor at San Jose State University and director of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center, said this week. Temperatures are expected to rise sharply within the region starting Tuesday. Highs of 35 degrees are expected in Concord on Tuesday, 32 degrees in San Jose and 28 degrees in Oakland, in response to the National Weather Service. In many parts of the Bay Area, the mercury is predicted to proceed to rise on Wednesday before turning cooler again on Thursday.

The Corral Fire broke out only a day after Cal Fire announced Friday that it will suspend permits to burn debris outdoors at private homes in Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa and western San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties starting Saturday, citing “abundant” grass dried out by wind and rising temperatures.

Two firefighters from the Alameda County Fire Department were injured while fighting the hearth. “They were
to local hospitals where they are being treated and evaluated,” the department said in a press release Sunday afternoon. A Cal Fire spokesman said the firefighters were in stable condition and recovering.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation on Sunday afternoon, Cal Fire said. The Alameda County Fire Department said on Sunday that it had conducted a controlled burn in the fire area on Friday, but that it had been extinguished by 3 p.m. The fire department sees no connection between this operation and the Corral Fire.

As of Sunday evening, only one building had been damaged; one house was considered a total loss, Cal Fire said.

An evacuation order was in place for 200 homes in the Tracy area, which was lifted at 6 p.m. Sunday and replaced with an evacuation warning. It is unclear how many residents fled. Residents in the warning area were urged Sunday evening to remain vigilant and prepare for a change in the situation.

Cal Fire has asked California residents to remove all dead or dying vegetation within 100 feet of homes.

On Saturday, firefighters battled sustained winds of 30 to 40 mph and gusts of up to 60 mph and “were not even able to conduct a direct attack,” said Cal Fire spokeswoman Cecile Juliette.

“With such strong winds, a grass fire spreads very quickly,” said Juliette. Lighter winds on Sunday allowed firefighters to make great progress, she said.

A fire this big in early June should be an “eye-opener” for the public, Juliette said. “Usually it's only in July that the fire really picks up speed and reaches this size,” she said.

The fire department's greatest concern was the new Tracy Hills residential area, which previously only had a handful of homes, and the area around the Tracy Golf & County Club, where the house was destroyed.

The house, which was mostly burned to the ground, was set against a backdrop of blackened hills, among houses that appeared to be untouched by the fire. Two charred palm trees stood at the entrance to the driveway of the destroyed house, which contained several burned-out cars. Melted fences lined the property line.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation on Sunday afternoon, Cal Fire said. The Alameda County Fire Department said on Sunday that it had conducted a controlled burn in the fire area on Friday, but that it had been extinguished by 3 p.m. The fire department sees no connection between this operation and the Corral Fire.

South of Tracy, a fire crew from Santa Cruz, assisted by firefighters from a state prison, had been battling the fire since about 6 a.m. By Sunday afternoon, they were already spraying water on the smoldering embers to keep the flames away from the Tracy Hills residential area.

“We were just busy cleaning up here and making sure that any risk of the fire reigniting or spreading here was eliminated,” said Cal Fire Captain Skylar Merritt.

After I-580 was closed overnight and most of the morning from I-205 to I-5, the left lane of eastbound 580 reopened before noon, but the right lane remained closed from Corral Hollow Road to South Bird Road in San Joaquin County until Sunday afternoon. The westbound lanes reopened Sunday morning, Caltrans said. By 6 p.m. Sunday, all eastbound lanes were reopened, Cal Fire said.

A temporary evacuation site has been set up at the Larch Clover Community Center at 11157 W. Larch Road in Tracy.

“Most people stop by here before checking into hotels or looking for accommodation on their own,” Vigil said.

Additionally, the Hold Your Horses emergency evacuation team was called to help residents who might have assistance evacuating animals on Saturday evening.

The team was on standby, however the Contra Costa-based organization returned home without having to rescue any animals.

“We urge people to evacuate their animals in a timely manner,” said Chantel Tieman, co-founder of HYH. “Don't wait to get your animals to the evacuation site.”

The fire broke out around 2:40 p.m. Saturday near Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Site 300 southwest of Tracy.

Strong winds from the west caused the fire to spread quickly, burning east toward Tracy after it started Saturday afternoon. According to Cal Fire, the fire spread from 4,900 acres at 7:40 p.m. to 8,800 acres at 8:50 p.m.

By 6 a.m. Sunday morning, 12,500 acres of land had burned and the fire was only 15 percent contained.

As of 8 a.m. Sunday morning, improved weather conditions allowed emergency crews to continue building and reinforcing fire lines. At least 400 firefighters were dispatched to the fire and Cal Fire said “quite a few firefighting aircraft from across the state are flying firefighting missions as conditions permit.”

Early Saturday afternoon, the fire was reported to be 40 percent contained. As of 8:50 p.m. Saturday evening, the fire's containment was downgraded to just 10 percent, Cal Fire reported.

High winds complicated firefighters' efforts to get the fire under control early on. Aerial firefighters struggled to find safe airspace as wind gusts reached over 40 mph, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Josh Silveira said. Fire crews from across the region — including Alameda County, Santa Clara County and San Joaquin County — fought the fire from the ground.

Those strong westerly winds drove the fire east toward Tracy and Stockton, said Craig Shoemaker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

To make matters worse, the wildfire started along Altamont Pass, where winds get stronger as you cross the narrow canyon, allowing the fire to “spread and really gain momentum,” Shoemaker said.