Lithium Battery Fire Continues to Burn as County Considers Moratorium

Local groups are reacting to Thursday’s dramatic lithium battery fire in Escondido that prompted in school closures and evacuation orders — even as the fire continues to burn.

The fire, which began at the SDG&E facility Thursday afternoon, is being allowed to burn out by itself — per industry standard, said the Escondido Fire Department.

Just one of the site’s 24 cells caught fire.

“Along with the San Diego County Hazardous Materials Division, the San Diego County Health Department and the city of Escondido, SDG&E has been actively monitoring air quality at the site of the fire and in the evacuation area throughout the incident,” a joint statement from SDG&E and the Escondido Fire Department said.

“Sampling locations and screening levels were identified under the guidance of the county and city Incident Coordinator, who have reviewed all results along with SDG&E and have determined that the air quality does not pose a health risk for those on site or in the evacuation area.”

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will take up an item Tuesday intended to place a temporary pause on the application for new battery energy storage systems — shortened to BESS by people in the industry — until more stringent building and safety codes can be put in place.

This could potentially freeze development of another proposed storage project in Escondido, not far from where Thursday’s fire took place. This project would be capable of storing up to 320 megawatts or 1,280 megawatt hours worth of energy, which is several times larger than the facility where the fire continues to burn.

“Area residents are renewing their call for the county to issue a moratorium on building new lithium battery storage facilities in neighborhoods,” said a statement from a group of citizens, including JP Theberge of the Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council and Joe Rowley, a retired engineer and battery storage facility developer.

“The Escondido battery fire is unfolding in an industrial area away from homes and residences. However, it reinforces the concerns of residents that a project that is 10 times larger (the Seguro project) is being proposed, which would be surrounded by hundreds of homes and upwind from a hospital in northern San Diego County, near Escondido….

“Despite the current fire being in an industrial area, hundreds of businesses were evacuated and many more were told to shelter-in-place. Schools located downwind were closed today as well.”

However, the supervisors do not have to choose to put a freeze on all BESS projects, and could instead adopt an “urgency ordinance” requiring new BESS facilities to use updated safety guidelines.

This is important, because without the BESS facilities, the county could have a difficult time meeting its climate goals.

While no one has been injured by the fire — which may take up to 48 hours to burn itself out — evacuation orders remain in place in the largely industrial part of the city.

The battery storage facilities are a component of the county’s approach green energy, storing energy from renewable sources such as solar or wind to use as needed. They are intended as an alternative or at least a supplement to fossil fuel energies such as natural gas and oil.

Since 2021, there have been 45 fires at similar BESS facilities, including one at the Otay Mesa battery storage center earlier this year and one in Valley Center last year.

City News Service contributed to this report.