Battery fire in Otay Mesa smoldering for a sixth day
About 40 firefighters remain at the Gateway Energy Storage facility that houses lithium-ion batteries
A battery fire at an energy storage facility in Otay Mesa continued to smolder Tuesday, leaving firefighters contending with the blaze for a sixth straight day.
“This is a dynamic situation, dealing with lithium-ion batteries, so we are treating it very carefully,” said Cal Fire Capt. Mike Cornette. “We’re being very cautious.”
Evacuation orders and warnings are in effect within several hundred feet of the 250-megawatt Gateway Energy Storage Facility, located in an industrial park on the 600 block of Camino de la Fuente. But Cornette said the fire has not reached the level of posing a threat to lives in the area.
A San Diego County hazardous material team remained on scene, monitoring air quality. Readings on Tuesday did not show any abnormalities.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
The blaze has been a frustrating one for firefighters, given that lithium-ion batteries can sometimes overheat and trigger what’s called “thermal runaway” — a chain reaction in which the condition spreads from one battery to another, especially when they are stacked inside a battery storage facility.
The fire was first reported last Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday, fire officials thought the blaze had been largely extinguished but some of the batteries reignited on Friday evening and continued to flare through the weekend.
About 40 firefighters have kept a close eye on the batteries, monitoring them for excessive heat and drenching the site when puffs of smoke appear.
“We’re monitoring and spraying water when necessary,” said Cornette, who said a standpipe from the building’s sprinkler system poured 350 gallons of water per minute on the site at the height of the fire.
No homes are in the immediate vicinity of the battery storage project, but Cornette said the Vulcan Material Company’s asphalt plant located next door was operating Tuesday.
The fire is centered within Building 3 at the Gateway facility. The building’s roof is sagging but has not collapsed, Cornette said. Firefighters will not go into the immediate area where the batteries are located until the batteries have no chance of reigniting.
“We’re working with the property owner and their contractors to come up with a plan to fully mitigate this issue,” Cornette said. “This is an ongoing incident, so we’re going to be out here for quite some time.”
The Gateway Energy Storage facility is owned and operated by Rev Renewables, a subsidiary of LS Power that is based in New York City. The project opened in August 2020 and at the time, it was the largest battery storage facility in the U.S.
The lithium-ion batteries at Gateway provide electricity to California’s electric grid.
Energy storage projects have taken on a higher profile in recent years, as state policymakers try to meet California’s goal to derive 100 percent of the state’s electricity from carbon-free sources.
Power from energy storage projects managed by the California Independent System Operator has grown from a mere 250 megawatts in 2019 to 6,617 megawatts in July of 2023. By 2045, the state plans to have 52,000 megawatts online.
But, while relatively rare, there have been instances of thermal runaway when batteries overheat. It has happened in hand-held devices, electric vehicles, e-bikesand in battery storage facilities.
One of the reasons why battery fires are hard to put out is because the materials used in lithium-ion generate their own oxygen. So while water-based extinguishing agents can cool overheated batteries, they cannot always put the fire out completely.
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