In January, a lithium-ion battery-storage plant in Monterey County, Calif., caught fireplace and burned for days, prompting evacuations and faculty shut downs. Residents are involved about their well being.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Final month, one of many world’s largest lithium battery storage services close to Monterey, California, erupted in flames. Folks fled the world, and faculties closed as the hearth smoldered for days. It briefly reignited final week, and residents are frightened about their well being. From member station KAZU in Monterey, Elena Neale-Sacks studies.
ELENA NEALE-SACKS, BYLINE: Small clouds dot the blue sky exterior Sherry Okamoto’s home in Royal Oaks. That is a rural group about six miles from the Moss Touchdown battery plant. It is starkly completely different from the afternoon of January 16, when a plume of smelly, black smoke moved in.
SHERRY OKAMOTO: As quickly as I opened the door, I acquired hit with burnt plastic.
NEALE-SACKS: Okamoto says she did not know what was happening. She and her husband had been scared and began wrangling their animals – chickens, geese, cats, canines – to get them inside.
OKAMOTO: My eyes had been burning. My nostril was burning. We had been already coughing. And we weren’t out lengthy.
NEALE-SACKS: That smoke was from a constructing that housed almost a hundred-thousand lithium-ion battery modules that retailer renewable vitality however had caught on fireplace. Monterey County rapidly issued an evacuation order for folks close by.
Lithium battery fires are notoriously arduous to combat, and firefighters mentioned they needed to let it burn out as a result of water would have been ineffective. The evacuation order was lifted the next night. No houses had been destroyed, however there was proof of the hearth even miles exterior the evacuation zone. Okamoto nonetheless has a bucket crammed with thick, black water that she hauled out of her duck pool.
OKAMOTO: There’s oil and soot and powder. And that is what I caught my fingers into ‘trigger I did not need my geese to get sick.
NEALE-SACKS: She says the water burned her fingers and gave her a rash. The Monterey County Well being Division says 49 folks have reported signs. County officers say preliminary checks of soil, water and air across the plant don’t pose a direct public well being hazard, however two checks did present elevated contaminant ranges that require follow-up. If individuals are frightened, county officers say they need to see their physician. In the meantime, 1000’s have joined Fb teams the place individuals are discussing the signs they assume could also be because of the fireplace.
JEN WRENNE: I’ve had a number of problem respiratory. My coronary heart charge will soar up like loopy.
NEALE-SACKS: Jen Wrenne lives about 12 miles from the battery plant. She’s gone to the physician’s workplace 4 instances within the final month.
WRENNE: The very first physician advised me, you have got allergic reactions.
NEALE-SACKS: She requested for blood checks to examine for the metals present in lithium batteries after which had to return for a redraw due to a lab mix-up. When she nonetheless wasn’t feeling effectively 5 days after that, a doctor’s assistant advised her to see her major care physician.
WRENNE: Which I am unable to get in to see for 3 months.
NEALE-SACKS: She thought perhaps she had a sinus an infection and acquired antibiotics from a fourth physician, however she nonetheless did not really feel higher. In the meantime, the heavy steel take a look at did not present something regarding. Besides, she says…
WRENNE: They ended up testing magnesium as an alternative of manganese.
NEALE-SACKS: So she’s getting yet one more take a look at.
WRENNE: It has been actually arduous to get any form of medical help or any medical assist.
NEALE-SACKS: In distinction to county and state checks, San Jose State College researchers took numerous soil samples near the plant and located a spike in three poisonous heavy metals. They had been a whole lot to a thousand instances increased than earlier than the hearth.
Don Smith is a professor of environmental toxicology on the College of California, Santa Cruz. He says the state and San Jose take a look at outcomes look contradictory for a pair causes. They sampled completely different places, and San Jose state researchers solely analyzed the topmost layer of soil. Among the state checks included deeper samples, which, Smith says, might end in diluted ranges of metals. He says individuals are proper to need extra readability.
DON SMITH: Collectively, the info that we have seen signifies that not sufficient has been accomplished to find out what the danger to me could also be if I used to be a resident in that space.
NEALE-SACKS: Smith says heavy metals in lithium batteries are poisonous at elevated exposures. They’ll trigger respiratory points and improve the danger of neurological problems and developmental delays in youngsters. Vistra, the corporate that owns the plant, didn’t reply to questions on its security however has mentioned it is investigating the reason for the hearth. Individuals who dwell close to the plant have sued. They are saying Vistra did not take correct security measures. For NPR Information, I am Elena Neale-Sacks in Monterey.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its last kind and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability might fluctuate. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.
