By Hanna Park and Rebekah Riess

(CNN) — Evacuation orders remain in place after a fire broke out at a power plant facility in Central California Thursday night, officials said Friday.

Monterey County officials said in a briefing they are aware that there was a plume of materials, including toxic hydrogen fluoride, released Thursday night from the Moss Landing Power Plant, which serves as a battery storage site. The EPA and Vistra Energy, which owns the plant, have air quality monitoring equipment on site, which has not picked up reportable levels of hydrogen fluoride gas, according to North County Fire Protection District Fire Chief Joel Mendoza.

“It appeared last night and early this morning that that plume was reaching elevations where it might not endanger the human population, but that’s something that we’re monitoring constantly,” Monterey County spokesperson Nicholas Pasculli said at the briefing on Friday morning.

Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto said the county would be able to lift the evacuation orders once “more advanced monitoring systems” are brought on site and “the county is comfortable.” A meeting to discuss lifting evacuation orders is slated to take place Friday afternoon.

Firefighters worked to contain the fire so it would burn out as quickly as possible, and now there are few active flames and as of Friday morning, very little release of combustion byproducts, according to Mendoza.

Mendoza noted that there had been no injuries to civilians, plant personnel, or first responders.

Monterey County has proclaimed a local emergency, “and will continue to support our evacuees, as well as the first responders, until such time that the evacuation orders can be lifted,” Kelsey Scanlon, director of emergency management for Monterey County, said.

All North Monterey County Unified School District schools and offices were closed on Friday due to the ongoing fire at the battery plant, according to a statement. The district serves more than 4,500 K-12 students, and covers a 70 square-mile area that includes neighborhoods in Castroville, Prunedale, Moss Landing, Aromas and parts of Salinas, its website says.

The fire erupted at the facility around 3 p.m. Thursday, and evacuation orders were issued around 6:30 p.m. due to concerns over hazardous materials and potential chemical releases, Rosas said without detailing which materials were causing concern. More than 2,000 people were told to evacuate.

Vistra Energy personnel had called for assistance from the North Monterey County Fire District after a fire was detected in the 300-MW Phase I energy storage facility. “The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but an investigation will begin once the fire is extinguished,” the company said.

“Our company takes very seriously what happened last night, and we are hurting today, because we know primarily it’s impacted and disrupted the people who live around our site, our neighbors, our friends and businesses, and for that, we are sincerely sorry,” Brad Watson, a senior director of community affairs at Vistra Energy, said Friday.

“Our first unit on scene arrived and found that there was smoke (coming) out of the building and we did find at least one battery on fire,” Mendoza said. “Due to the intensity of fire, and smoke and super-heated gasses, roughly about an hour and a half into the incident, conditions change drastically.” A fire suppression system was overridden and led to the fire overtaking the system and eventually overtaking the entire building, the fire chief said.

The sheriff’s office deployed drones to assess the severity of the situation and monitor air quality, Pasculli with Monterey County told CNN. Emergency services, including sheriff’s deputies and medical teams, were dispatched, Pasculli added.

Drone footage revealed approximately 40% of the building housing lithium-ion batteries on the property had been consumed by flames, Sheriff’s Commander Andres Rosas said.

Vistra Energy branded the facility as the “largest of its kind in the world,” boasting a capacity of 750 megawatts and 3,000 megawatt-hours following its 2023 expansion. It plays a critical role in stabilizing California’s energy grid, the company said.

The Moss Landing Power Plant, about 77 miles south of San Francisco, houses tens of thousands of lithium batteries. While the US Department of Energy states these batteries play a crucial role in storing electricity generated from renewable sources like solar power, the US Fire Administration warns firefighters should be cautious of potential chemical exposure during firefighting operations as lithium-ion batteries contain volatile electrolytes, and when exposed to high temperatures or physical damage can release flammable gases.

The incident comes about three years after a previous fire at the same facility, though the sheriff’s office spokesperson said he “doesn’t consider it to be related.”

On September 4, 2021, a malfunction at Moss Landing caused some battery damage. An investigation revealed the heat suppression system was accidentally triggered by low smoke from a faulty component, leading to water spraying on the battery storage areas and damaging about 7% of the batteries. There were no injuries, and the situation was managed without outside assistance, Vistra said in a 2022 statement on its investigative findings.

In October 2023, following a fire at a different battery plant owned by another company, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill mandating battery storage facilities to implement safety and communication protocols to enhance safety measures.

The area is adjacent to major ecosystems, including the Moss Landing Wildlife Area, Elkhorn Slough State Marine Reserve and Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.

“I think this is basically best described as a worst-case scenario of a disaster that’s happened here,” said Supervisor Glenn Church, who represents Monterey County’s Second District and who is calling for an independent investigation. “It’s really a wake-up call for this industry and if we’re going to be moving ahead with sustainable energy, we need to have … safe battery systems in place.”

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