Another fire at Moss Landing battery facility raises health and air quality concerns

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- It happened again. There was another fire at the Vistra Energy battery storage facility in Monterey County.

An alert urged residents Tuesday night to close windows and doors as fire crews fought the blaze.

"First responders will remain at the scene to ensure that we have an efficient response if needed," said Chief Joel Mendoza with North County Fire Protection District.

The North County Fire Protection District detected the exact location of the blaze in an area known to them. It says a flare-up like this is not unusual.

"The fire started underneath a pile of rubble in a section that had previously burned," Mendoza said.

A drone was launched to further investigate and officials continue to monitor the conditions at the building.

In a statement, Vistra Corp. says that the latest fire started Tuesday evening and burned itself out around 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Just last month, a large fire at this battery facility led to the evacuation of residents as the county alerted the community of unknown hazards posed by the smoke.

RELATED: 'Light smoke' coming from Moss Landing battery facility; residents asked to close windows

"Additional instances of smoke and flare-ups are a possibility given the nature of this situation and the damage to the batteries," Vistra Corps. said in part in a statement. "Since the January 16 fire, Vistra has brought in a private professional fire brigade that is onsite 24/7 to monitor the Moss 300 building. Additionally, CTEH has permanent air-quality monitors around the plant site's perimeter along with other continuously operating monitors at locations in the surrounding community."

During a digital press conference Wednesday, Monterey County officials said evacuations this time were not necessary.

"The EPA has conducted a quality air monitoring in the evacuation zones and no readings have indicated any significant public health impact. Our Monterey Health District has reviewed the smoke sensor date and air quality has remained in a good range for the past 24 hours," said Rick Encarnacion, director of the Environmental Health Bureau County of Monterey.

Monterey County is now asking the public to fill out this survey to track any symptoms residents may experience after these fires. Vistra Corp., which owns the Moss Landing facility urged those impacted to apply for financial assistance.

"We are concerned about the impact and the destruction this has caused to our neighbors and to the businesses in the area. So, we were very prompt in listening and taking action through programs that are still ongoing," said Brad Watson, senior director of community affairs for Vistra Corp. "They can go to MossLandingResponse.com and begin to get the information there and start the process."

On the phone, the OnScene Coordinator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirmed it is monitoring this incident and working on ways to prevent future fires.

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"It's called de-linking the batteries, and basically what that does, is that it disconnects the batteries, and that reduces the likelihood of propagation and the likelihood of a large fire," said Eric Sandusky, OnScene coordinator at US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's plan is set to be deployed on Feb. 22. As to the air quality, it said it is sampling for heavy metals, but is not urging the public to close their windows and doors at this time.

Nadim Maluf is a former Stanford professor and current CEO of Qnovo, a battery management software company in Milpitas.

"Big facilities like this it's new territory. I don't think we have developed processes to fight fires of this magnitude," Maluf said.

Maluf said there should be more involvement from regulators to manufacturers to make battery storage safer.

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"Right now, Moss Landing is relatively - I don't want to say a highly urbanized area - it's not. But one day, we're going to be putting these facilities into Manhattan and San Francisco what happens if even a small fire takes place?" Maluf said.

Sitting next to the battery plant is the state's second largest estuary- Elkhorn Slough.

That's where Ivano Aiello and his team of researchers found high concentrations of heavy metal particles in marsh soils after the battery plant fire.

"I can tell you that things are changing, they're changing pretty rapidly," Aiello said.

Aiello said he's working around the clock collecting surface and subsurface samples from at least 100 different locations.

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"The short, medium, long-term effects on the ecosystems that not just myself, but most of my colleagues will help to disentangle," Aiello said.

Aiello said he'll be testing the soils again in the next couple of days.

"Lets learn from it, lessons will come in months or years so we have to be patient," Aiello said.

"Under the direction of the U.S. EPA, continuous air quality monitoring is ongoing, and no hazardous air conditions have been detected," Vistra Corp. said in their statement. "Additionally, the Monterey Bay Area Resource District reports that concentrations measured by its smoke sensor monitoring system have registered air quality in the 'good' or 'green' range on the EPA's Air Quality Index. All battery facilities at the site remain offline; the natural gas plant is operational."