MOSS LANDING, Calif. — A major fire burning Friday at one of the world’s largest battery storage plants in Northern California is sending up flames of toxic smoke, leading to the evacuation of 1,700 people and the closure of a major highway.
The blaze in Moss Landing started Thursday sending towering flames and plumes of black smoke into the sky. But by Friday morning, the flames and smoke had significantly diminished in size, Fire Chief Joel Mendoza of the North County Fire Protection District of Monterey County said.
“There’s very little, if any, of a plume emitting from that building,” Mendoza said. Crews are not engaging with the fire and are waiting for it to burn out, he said.
The blaze did not gone beyond the facility, according to Monterey County spokesperson Nicholas Pasculli. As of late Thursday, a few dozen people were at a temporary evacuation center and the rest had gone to friends or family or made other arrangements,…
