Evacuation orders lifted in Escondido after lithium-ion battery fire at SDG&E facility that also prompted school closures

Update: Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024:

The City of Escondido on Saturday lifted all evacuation orders by noon. Those in the affected area registered with Alert San Diego and/or Genasys should have received a notification for when they were cleared to repopulate the area.

Over the coming weeks, the Escondido Fire Department and SDG&E will conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the fire, according to Tyler Batson, Division Chief for the Escondido Fire Department.

Original story:

Thousands of people in Escondido are affected by an incessant fire that sparked Thursday at SDG&E’s Northeast Operations Center, a lithium-ion battery energy storage facility.

The blaze sparked just after noon and is burning in the 500 block of Enterprise Street, just a few blocks from where Interstate 15 intersects with state Route 78 and quickly prompted evacuations of more than 500 businesses and 1,500 SDG&E customer homes, according to the electricity agency.

By Friday morning, firefighters said they noticed all activity died around 1 a.m. and has remained that way since. County hazmat and SDG&E experts are also at the scene with environmental monitors that have not picked up on any toxic gases.

"It’s possible to have a flare-up again, even though we’re not seeing any outward fire activity right now and that’s all good news, but we would hate to tell people it’s safe to come back in these areas and the temperature picks up and one of those things that are been smoldering around for a while lights off, and now we’re right back to where we were yesterday," said Escondido Fire Battalion Chief Tyler Batson.

This fire comes a little more than a week after the Escondido City Council took up the issue of battery energy storage within or adjacent to the North County city. Read more about the city council discussion below.

School closures, evacuations, shelter-in-place orders

The Escondido Union School District said on its website that the Carolyn Gilbert Education Center, the Del Dios Academy of Arts and Sciences and Rock Springs Elementary schools will be closed on Friday "due to the fires in the area." Limitless Learning will cancel on-campus activities but offer remote instruction, the district added.

The schools listed are all within three miles of the battery fire and were placed on an evacuation order at around 3:15 p.m. on Thursday.

"Operations were paused, families were contacted to pick up any remaining students on campus, and staff safely left the sites," the district said.

The impacted schools are expected to be back open on Monday, according to EUSD.

Escondido Fire Department Battalion Chief Tyler Batson told NBC 7 that officials put together a plan to evacuate the nearby area, which includes approximately 500 businesses. About 1,500 SDG&E business customers were also affected, Batson added.

According to fire officials, police officers went door-to-door to ensure everybody had left in the approximately six-square-block area.

Those who are evacuated will have to remain out of the area until the fire is out, which could take hours or longer.

"Immediate threat to life," a notification on the city's website states, in part. "This is a lawful order to leave now. The area is lawfully closed to public access."

"The area east of Alpine Street, south of Mission Road, west of Enterprise Street, and north of Auto Park Way is under mandatory evacuation orders," according to the city of Escondido. "Please leave the area and head to a location away from the incident. (Notifications have been sent to those in this area)."

Officials have established an evacuation point at Pala Casino, out east on SR-76.

A large area to the south and west of the area has been put under a shelter-in-place order. Anybody in that area should stay in the building they're in with the windows and doors closed.

SDG&E said an outage in the area beginning shortly after 4 p.m. was impacting 1,050 customers, but the utility company later said the outage was not related to the battery fire.

What's on fire in Escondido?

Batson said that firefighters arrived for a smoke check and found that one of the battery banks, which are the size of a small RV trailer, was on fire. Firefighters were making efforts to prevent the fire from spreading to the other banks by saturating them and keeping them cool.

SkyRanger 7 arrived over the scene around 3:15 p.m. and easily located the fire with brilliant orange flames escaping the sides of the bank, which is in an area where two dozen banks are located. A half-dozen or so firefighters were located about 20-30 feet away, with the water from a pair of hoses spraying over the bank that ignited.

A pair of large air-conditioning units is located on the roof of each of the banks. Escondido, like the rest of the region, is in the grip of the biggest heat wave of the summer, with the National Weather Service reporting that temperatures in the area were hitting 103 degrees at 11:15 a.m. and staying in triple digits as late as 3:45 p.m.

A spokeswoman for Cal ISO (the California Independent System Operator), which operates the power grid in the state, told NBC 7 that the blaze has caused "no impacts to the bulk electric grid."

On Friday morning, NBC received an updated statement from SDG&E, which was put out in conjunction with the Escondido Fire Department.

“Yesterday afternoon, safety and environmental crews responded to a fire at SDG&E’s battery storage facility in Escondido. The event was limited to one of 24 battery storage containers. There were no reported injuries. 

“Due to the nature of the systems, industry standard is to allow the fire to burn out when it can be done safely and in a controlled environment. SDG&E will continue to work closely with fire officials until the storage container has been fully extinguished, which could take up to 48 hours. 

“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. 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. 

“Per Escondido Fire Department, the evacuation orders and warnings will remain in place as a precautionary measure until further notice.” 

Lithium battery fires

According to a fact sheet from SDG&E, when it was built in 2017, the 30MW/120MWh battery facility was the largest in the world.

Lithium-ion fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish since they undergo a process called thermal runaway and can't use water to put it out. A recent such fire took place earlier this year down by the border.

Essentially, when a battery cell combusts, the immense heat transfers to the next cell, leading it to catch fire. That heat then transfers to the next cell, and so on.

“Thermal runaway is that the battery goes into ignition and combustion and it keeps going in this process until it uses up all its energy,” Neil Schultz, executive director of VTEC Laboratories told NBC 4 in New York last year. “During that period of time it gives off a large amount of heat and high temperature and it’s a good source of ignition for other objects around it or in contact with it.”

Escondido City Council takes up issue of battery energy storage

Just last week, the Escondido City Council passed a resolution on battery energy storage system projects in or near the city.

The resolution, introduced by Escondido Mayor Dane White and Councilmember Mike Morasco, comes after energy company AES proposed the Seguro energy storage project, which would be built near Escondido and San Marcos.

"I want to make clear we're not opposed to battery energy storage … I don't believe that this one in particular is located in a reasonable location," White said about the Seguro project during the Aug. 28 meeting.

The mayor said that a fire at an Otay Mesa energy storage facility that burned for more than a dozen days earlier this year prompted him to propose the resolution.

"I thought, 'I better start paying a little bit more attention to this before the next one comes to the city of Escondido,'" White said.

Although the resolution passed 4-1, this doesn't mean the Seguro project won't move forward. White, however, instructed his staff to consider a temporary ban on battery energy storage systems until "proper zoning requirements are put in."

A lithium fire burned for days by the border

On May 15, a fire broke out at the Gateway Energy Storage facility in Otay Mesa, prompting evacuation orders and warnings in the surrounding areas that affected multiple businesses.

Despite crews getting the blaze under control and lifting evacuation orders roughly 24 hours later, evacuations were underway again after a flare-up on May 17. A shelter-in-place order was, at one point, issued for nearby Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.

Evacuations were lifted again on May 28, 13 days after the fire ignited, according to Cal Fire San Diego.