World’s largest battery facility in Moss Landing, CA on fire.
Posted by SuccessfulRoyal@reddit | PrepperIntel | View on Reddit | 115 comments
Posted by SuccessfulRoyal@reddit | PrepperIntel | View on Reddit | 115 comments
Hey_Look_80085@reddit
They have every dollar sunk into old battery tech. New tech about to push them completely out of business.
Only one thign to do when the president is a fraud and that's...do as the president do, if you get caught, just run for President!
Hey_Look_80085@reddit
Oh yeah, and California announced they are not going to force trucks to switch to EV and they are going to let diesel stick around....there went BILLIONS of dollars in potential income for this manufacturer.
therapistofcats@reddit
Hopefully they get that contained. The whole area is full of eucalyptus trees. Used to live there, it's a all wildland urban interface with to a of flammable invasive plants. We actually had our insurance cancelled twice because of it, even though our property didn't have any and we had proper defensible space
schwags@reddit
Huh, TIL that live eucalyptus trees are flammable.
therapistofcats@reddit
Short little video about it
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NkEK3RAnMdo
escapefromburlington@reddit
Fuck eucalyptus!
Call-to-john@reddit
As an Australian I was shocked at the amount of eucalyptus in CA when I was there. Everyone would talk about how pretty they were. All I saw was unmanaged, potential fire risk everywhere.
therapistofcats@reddit
It's been awhile but if I recall correctly it was a sea captain friend of the owners of the property back in the mid 1800s that brought him the euc seeds/saplings because the owner, I think his last name was Patterson, he liked eclectic and odd things, like peacocks and such. So someone brought him these seeds from Australia. I believe people planned on using them for sailing masts or rail road ties, but the type brought back had very twisted grain and we're pretty much useless. But as the San Fransisco Bay Area grew and they cut down the redwoods to build homes and such they just let the eucs keep spreading. I believe it was one of the factors that made the Oakland Hills Firestorm so bad, the oil from the eucs, when those trees burn it produces very thick black smoke.
Apophylita@reddit
Fascinating.
doggyStile@reddit
Bring in some koalas?
Lookn4mylight420@reddit
The Great Emus?
whereitsat23@reddit
You want a WAR?
Lookn4mylight420@reddit
Only if I’m on the Emu side.
WillBottomForBanana@reddit
So the normal problem with using natural predators to fight invasives is all the testing that needs to be done about what the NatPred will do, will it attack other things, what happens when the target is eliminated, etc.
But those questions are pretty well settled for Koalas! And the Chlamydia isn't a big deal because it's already California.
But it does bump up against the last hurdle. Invasives becoming naturalized in people's minds. For example when endangered birds nest in invasive trees it becomes difficult to eliminate the trees, because they are now bird habitat.
therapistofcats@reddit
Yup and one of the regional parks has a huge eucalyptus grove (possibly the first in the state) and that's where monarchs over winter, it used to be in great numbers but fewer and fewer are returning. But it makes it difficult nonetheless to control eucs when they are an important habitat for a sort of keystone species.
therapistofcats@reddit
I mean they eat the leaves but that doesn't really kill the tree. If anything leaf pulling can sometimes stimulate root growth. They also produce an an oil or something that causes lelopathy and prevents other vegetation from easily growing near it. They are a huge nuisance plant for that area.
fairoaks2@reddit
Those eucalyptus trees are proving to be a real terrible import. Oakland foothills were full of them. 101 from San Jose south is another area. Lots of farmers planted them for windbreaks.
nostrademons@reddit
Marin county and many of the downtowns on the peninsula as well. The latter is particularly concerning because embers from a fire in the hills (only 1-2 miles away) could catch a eucalyptus stand on fire and bring it directly into urban parks. Local cities near me have been using a lot of their parks & rec budgets to remove the eucalyptus trees.
fairoaks2@reddit
Noticed on 101 from King City to San Jose they seemed to be cutting them down. Don’t remember seeing the number in the Sacramento area.
IsItAnyWander@reddit
It won't spread beyond the concrete turbine building it's in.
therapistofcats@reddit
That's good. The flames looked pretty high when I saw an article about it this morning. But looks like the surface winds are blowing out to sea and not inland like usual.
unorganized_mime@reddit
How does that place of all places not have some super advanced fire suppression system. Places that are a severe health danger should be held accountable. But nobody’s ever held accountable.
under_PAWG_story@reddit
I don’t get why it’s stored above ground.
Put it underground with either foam suppression or nitrogen suppression or something
IsItAnyWander@reddit
It's li-ion batteries, neither of those will put it out.
Electronic_Scale1385@reddit
Well, technically, now it was li-ion batteries. I'd bet that after the ashes are scooped up, they'll not buy li-ion again.
IsItAnyWander@reddit
Wrong.
Phssthp0kThePak@reddit
Then it won’t hit the cost targets.
lilBloodpeach@reddit
I’m not sure underground would work. Its very swampy
unorganized_mime@reddit
Money it’s always about money
Sausage_Child@reddit
I toured the Tesla Gigafactory in 2017 during a job interview and they had what appeared to me as a woefully inadequate fire system. I'm a safety engineer and fire safety is a world unto itself but I still pay attention to that stuff. I ended up not taking the job, mostly because of low pay but also because safety did not seem to be a priority and at the time Tesla's injury rates were 30% above the industry average.
Lubenator@reddit
An additional tesla fact, they have the highest fatal accident rate of all call brands
UPdrafter906@reddit
And the Tesla fanbois simply do not care. I know a few and they seem absolutely brainwashed.
panormda@reddit
Because safety is for losers. Because the appearance of weakness is more harmful than the danger.
buckeyemonst3r@reddit
The codes, standards, and testing to protect batteries from a fire suppression POV are woefully behind the current pace of technology. No one has a great answer at the moment, there is no agreed upon method to do contain or put out a battery fire. Water doesn’t do it, foam doesn’t do it, it’s the Wild West really.
Sad-Cat8694@reddit
I think we could significantly close the gap if we decided collectively that innovation without adequate attention to mitigating the consequences of such innovation bears too high a cost in terms of collateral damage. I also take extreme offense to the notion that the ones sounding the alarm are the ones who all too often are browbeaten into abandoning the call for caution.
I'm not saying we have to solve all the problems, and I'm certainly not suggesting that we could reasonably foresee every potential risk. But I am saying the quiet part out loud that greed and personal vanity are the driving force in the "let's not get too mired in regulation" argument that seems to be the prevailing corporate sentiment at the moment.
I also can't ignore the fact that those who have a well-documented history of insisting upon "progress" while simultaneously railing against a serious analysis of the repercussions tend to be very far removed from the area of risk. It's giving "some of YOU may die, but that's a chance I'M willing to take". As angry as I get when I read interviews by Stockton Rush, it's a small comfort that he paid for his own arrogance, ignorance, and hubris. If only every "regulations are for cowards" billionaire put their own neck on the line.
hurryuppy@reddit
except the littles
Inferno976@reddit
Because capitalism.
First_last_kill@reddit
Ever hear of Chernobyl ? It ain’t a capitalist thing. It’s a power thing. And we ain’t in power.
JadedBoyfriend@reddit
Wrong answer. It's unchecked capitalism. Capitalism when moderated is a good thing. It's when corporations and business people are not scrutinized.
IsItAnyWander@reddit
Good thing for whom? Homeless people? Poor people? You've drank the billionaire's koolaid.
JadedBoyfriend@reddit
Moderated. Not unchecked capitalism. Learn to read.
IsItAnyWander@reddit
I can read JB. Show me capitalism without people living on sidewalks.
JadedBoyfriend@reddit
Singapore
IsItAnyWander@reddit
https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2018/03/09/how-capitalist-is-singapore-really/
Lol, maybe we can vote our way to that level of "capitalism." You're a doink.
JadedBoyfriend@reddit
That's the problem with people like you. You asked a question that was solved, thus you were wrong, so you go and look for something else.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7829/j.ctv138wqt7.13?seq=3
There are relatively successful examples - mind you not perfect - of every economic system. Yet corruption exists everywhere, even Singapore. Especially Singapore.
Hell they even have drug problems, even if they are so hard on drugs.
Anyway, my point is that people are the problem, specifically corrupt people. it's no secret that they tend to be rich. But claiming capitalism is the most misguided thing ever. Learn something for a change instead of sidestepping.
JadedBoyfriend@reddit
It's too simplistic to just say "capitalism is bad". I'd say that corruption will exist in any system. So that isn't an economics issue. It's a people issue. And capitalism tends to be more corrupt than others, yet corruption still exists in other systems. What does that tell you?
jetstobrazil@reddit
Because oligarchs pay good money to congressman to never be held accountable.
EVERY problem in the US boils down to this same problem if you keep following it.
AffectionateRadio356@reddit
"Woah, that's crazy, I followed these unrelated problems back to the source and found the same source. Weird, anyways, nothing to do about them."
Americans, reacting to industrial accidents, the war in Iraq, housing crisis, low wages, etc.
bobbydishes@reddit
no corporation is ever held accountable
AdditionalAd9794@reddit
Climate change strikes again
Puzzleheaded-Ad-8922@reddit
You didn’t read the article? This doesn’t have anything to do with climate change.
Radiant_Repeat_8735@reddit
The climate change made Californias government corrupt and forced them to delay building and maintaining water reservoirs for 6 decades. Then the climate change snuck in and forced the LAFD to to cut civilian workers from the fires dept, leading to a hundred firefighting vehicles being unusable during the blaze.
Then the climate change snuck into this battery factory (which has caught fire due to commercial negligence multiple times in the past) and burnt it to the ground with how fast it was changing on them, lol.
headlessheathen@reddit
The government should have stepped in front of the 100+ mph winds. What were they thinking?! Complete failure.
Radiant_Repeat_8735@reddit
Yes, that’s clearly what I’m suggesting. Attack that straw man and Disregard any of the actual things I said.
headlessheathen@reddit
I've never seen hurricane level winds in LA. That's really why it was so bad, and the reason I mention it. To give you an idea of how quickly it spreads. https://x.com/hurricanejrnl/status/1880099592462799254
Please tell me how anyone could stop that.
As far as your points..
Only one reservoir was out for maintenance, far outside of the typical fire season. For some reason, an unprecedented fire happened in January. I wonder why the fire season extended so far into winter. 🤔
But that doesn't mean I don't think this situation could have been avoided. This was a disaster building over the last decades. This is what happens when you expand the urban wild land interface, when we know these areas will continue to put humans at risk.
Also, at least two of the causes were downed power lines. These profit-seeking companies are putting everyone at risk when they don't update vital infrastructure, and the taxpayer ultimately pays for it.
Budget cuts did impact the fires, but not as much as people are saying. Even with a thousand trucks, they wouldn't been able to stop these fires with 100+ mph winds. Straight from the fire chief's mouth who brought up the budget cuts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XldrFfST848
Good introduction to wildfires in the area since you're so invested in LA. 😘 https://youtu.be/UxnC1WW95XE
Radiant_Repeat_8735@reddit
Guess we can’t do anything about it, then. Better just keep the reservoirs empty, keep cutting LAFD’s budget to give into counterproductive welfare programs and politicians pockets instead, maybe give the democrat governor and his administration a big pat on the back for running this disaster without fault, and wait for the next unavoidable climate disaster
headlessheathen@reddit
Yes, that’s clearly what I’m suggesting. Attack that straw man and Disregard any of the actual things I said.
Radiant_Repeat_8735@reddit
Annoying, when someone does that, isn’t it?
headlessheathen@reddit
"Why didn't you respond to the lies I found on LibsofTikTok?!"
Radiant_Repeat_8735@reddit
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-14/los-angeles-city-council-seeks-transparency-on-empty-reservoir-dry-hydrants
The conservative bigots over at….. LA times, work for you?
headlessheathen@reddit
Im aware of this reservoir like I mentioned before.
Did you read the article?
“If the reservoir had been online, the additional water might have helped save homes here and there, but it would not have changed the “order of magnitude” of the destruction, because of the intensity of the fire and the limitations of the water system, said Tom Kennedy, a water consultant and former general manager of Rainbow Municipal Water District in San Diego County.”
BTW the owner of LA Times is a trump supporter.
Radiant_Repeat_8735@reddit
Oh, well if it’s just a few homes and a few lives here and there…. Who cares, really?
The jack booted neo-Nazis over at the LA times probably made it all up anyway. The people’s republic of California could never be mismanaged. No sir,
headlessheathen@reddit
You’re just virtue signaling at this point t
no-such-pug@reddit
You sound stupid.
IforgotmyuserIDagain@reddit
I love this. "Climate change made me do it".
Thereelgarygary@reddit
Oh trust me a batter fire will change the local climate
pickypawz@reddit
I wonder if it could be deliberate,,,?
IsItAnyWander@reddit
Not a chance. It's not the first time this exact battery plant has had an "event". It's a poor design for a battery plant.
pickypawz@reddit
Well if it’s already happened then I don’t think you can discount the idea then, how better to make it look like it happened accidentally? It was just a thought though. A year or so ago Biden banned the sale to China of advanced chips, or chip making machines and a few days ago he doubled down and added more bans in this area. If I was China I would be absolutely infuriated. How can they maintain a presence on the world stage if they don’t have advanced chips for their phones, computers, vehicles, but most importantly for any military equipment, if they don’t have advanced chips? And they don’t. Maybe they find some here and there, but not like they had before.
keep_living_or_else@reddit
Sure, and we could come up with all sorts of convoluted ways that everything fits together; the point is to make the least amount of unsubstantiated jumps in logic as possible, though.
It has happened at this facility before because the facility does not take suppressive systems seriously (this is a national trend, in general; fire suppression systems are underappreciated and misunderstood). Once there's verifiable evidence of something else, you can speculate all you want and ride the chain of logic down from there. However, we have no inclination that says this would randomly be Chinese infiltrators working at the behest of Xi Jinping to sabotage America--and just claiming or even throwing that out without literally any proof means that your assertion can be thrown out just as easily as you threw it in.
pickypawz@reddit
I’ll keep that in mind.
keep_living_or_else@reddit
I'm no longer stressed by the workday and traffic, and I just want wanted to reply and say you're a kind person for not taking me at face-value. Rereading my response, I came across as kind of a dick to ya. Anyway, have a great weekend brozer
pickypawz@reddit
And normally I’m not one to just throw libellous accusations around, but I’m talking about the ccp here, and they have a very, very long arm. We’ve come through a time with China where everyone wanted to paint a rosy picture of them, but I think people are becoming aware of their true nature, and I have educated myself about them enough, learned enough about them, that I won’t put anything past them.
They do forced organ harvesting, they disappear people (despite an insane number of cameras set up everywhere to keep tabs on literally everyone. In videos I watched them weld tenants into their apartment buildings during Covid, so they couldn’t leave, also during Covid, just after an earthquake, men ran around outside and told everyone to go back into their apartments, despite the known dangers of that, particularly given their tofu dregs buildings. And did you know that the US offered their mRNA vaccines three different times, but all three times xi refused them? Smdh.
The ccp and local governments deliberately take actions they know will cause harm—sometimes to countless people and beings (such as releasing floodwaters, during typhoons, in the middle of of the night, with little to no warning, and then not providing help after the fact. And sadly no, that’s not a one-off), they routinely practice forced sterilization, forced reeducation, and so, so much more. I think they have no brakes, I think there is nothing they won’t do. And I’ve seen most of this on video taken by Chinese citizens, somehow it makes it out before it’s scrubbed. But I’ve seen the faces of people being swept away, and you can see they recognize their lives have zero value, and no one will help them. It’s super sad.
Character-Choice-246@reddit
My thoughts exactly, maybe even sabotage from abroad.
IsItAnyWander@reddit
Explain further. How would it have been executed?
Malcolm_Morin@reddit
People literally starting fires. There have already been people arrested over the last week and being charged with arson. One dude had an actual flamethrower in his car and tried to set a neighborhood on fire, but his fires were put out before they could escalate into anything beyond control.
therapistofcats@reddit
Link to flame thrower guy please
Malcolm_Morin@reddit
https://www.msn.com/en-us/public-safety-and-emergencies/health-and-safety-alerts/citizens-arrest-arson-suspect-holding-blowtorch-after-another-la-wildfire-starts/ar-BB1rdBS8
This happened last week in Woodland Hills. The man was carrying a blowtorch and trying to start a fire, and locals tackled him to the ground and held him until the police arrived. A lot of more right-leaning news stations are talking less about the fact that he tried to burn down a neighborhood, and more on the fact that he's apparently here illegally.
therapistofcats@reddit
Oh, the blow torch guy...blow torch is a bit different than an "actual flamethrower"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamethrower
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowtorch
Malcolm_Morin@reddit
Yeah, that was my fault. I thought I remembered them finding a flamethrower in his house or car, but I might've been thinking of the blowtorch instead.
IsItAnyWander@reddit
This is a controlled entry power plant. Not a brush fire.
aggressiveleeks@reddit
I wouldn't be surprised if Russia is behind it somehow, as revenge for all their mystery fires that are probably being set by Ukraine since the invasion.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_mystery_fires
soiledmeNickers@reddit
Breathe deep.
grahamfiend2@reddit
I would advise against breathing deep around a battery plant fire :-)
soiledmeNickers@reddit
Now that you mention it … 🤔
But seriously, I’ve been wondering how bad these fires have been environmentally. Wildfires are of course always an air quality concern, but this one being in such an urbanized area seems particularly detrimental.
Stunning-End-3487@reddit
Moss Landing is not an urbanized area.
horseradishstalker@reddit
Good thing smoke never spreads then.
Stunning-End-3487@reddit
Down the coast and out to sea.
-imjustalittleguy-@reddit
We are getting smoke from it in my area. Not advised to go outside for long periods of time
Stunning-End-3487@reddit
I’m sorry to hear that. Where are you located?
-imjustalittleguy-@reddit
Gilroy area
Stunning-End-3487@reddit
Wow, the winds shouldn’t be blowy that way. I’m surprised. Be safe.
soiledmeNickers@reddit
Was speaking about the fires more generally.
Stunning-End-3487@reddit
Okay.
SuccessfulRoyal@reddit (OP)
Luckily not too urban. Anyone in the smoke is evac’d from what my guys said.
SuccessfulRoyal@reddit (OP)
Leave it to us to find a way to make cancer airborne.
AnaWannaPita@reddit
About that... Yea been there done that
Aoushaa@reddit
Fly high.
jgo3@reddit
The gathering gloom....
xi545@reddit
What does this mean? No more batteries … for like anything?
SuccessfulRoyal@reddit (OP)
They produce and store energy, not tge actual consumer batteries we use in our everyday lives. I’m not too educated on what it is used for after storage but whatever that is, well, isn’t happening anymore.
xi545@reddit
So like solar capture?
Ghostwoods@reddit
It means pricier batteries for some things for a while.
ten10thsdriver@reddit
This is an energy storage facility owned by a utility company, Vista. It's not a manufacturing facility.
Ghostwoods@reddit
Oh, my bad.
ten10thsdriver@reddit
And even with your edit, it's not true. Electric rates won't go up and can't just be arbitrarily passed along to consumers. Especially in CA.
Rooooben@reddit
I hope we have some distance between state PUCs and federal rules where they can’t be determined to not to have the power to regulate state providers.
I think it may be safe from interference, but I don’t know if there’s any way the federal government can weasel in.
IsItAnyWander@reddit
This will have zero effect on pretty much anything outside of the vistra property in moss landing.
Williw0w@reddit
"Cannot stop the battery." - James Hetfield
SuccessfulRoyal@reddit (OP)
This made me laugh more than it should have.
Rooooben@reddit
Smashing through the boundaries/
Lunacy has found me/
Cannot stop
The Battery
Unless you have a poorly built factory that repeatedly catches on fire, apparently.
lilBloodpeach@reddit
I d always felt uncomfortable driving past this behemoth. It feels SO out of place considering most of miss landing is nature preserve. Maybe this will open some eyes
IsItAnyWander@reddit
Not really arguing with you, but everything you see from the road has been there since 1950. You can't see the batteries per se.
Shadoze_@reddit
I live really close to moss landing, we can see the smoke stacks. This is not the first time a fire has broken out there. Some People are being evacuated and others are told to close windows and not go outside. It’s crazy
No_Detail9259@reddit
Saving the planet one fire at a time.