A fire that began at SDG&E’s Northeast Operations Center has prompted a major callout of first responders and evacuations in Escondido on Thursday afternoon.

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.

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.

Evacuation, shelter-in-place orders

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 and 1,500 customers in the commercial area. Those who are evacuated will have to remain out of the area until the fire is out, which could take hours or longer. As of 4:30 pm, Batson said that the best case scenario for the fire would be 12 hours, but it could take as long as 48 hours before evacuation orders are lifted.

“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 a 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 zone at Pala Casino, out east on SR-76.

According to Batson, police officers are going door-to-door to make sure everyone has left in the approximately six-square-block area, with hundreds of businesses in the industrial park affected.

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

NBC7 San Diego

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.

“Go indoors,” reads the county notification, in part. “Shut and lock doors and windows. Prepare to self-sustain until further notice and/or contacted by emergency personnel for additional direction.

The battalion fire chief at the scene told NBC 7 that the smoke is so toxic that no regular mask could offer protection — you would need a self-contained breathing apparatus like the Scott packs that firefighters wear.

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. Right now, firefighters are 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 pm 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 am and staying in triple digits as late as 3:45 p.m

A lawsuit 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.”

Around the same time, SDG&E released a statement regarding the fire:

“This afternoon, safety crews responded to a fire at SDG&E’s battery storage facility in Escondido. Advanced fire suppression systems were activated immediately, and the event was limited to one of 24 battery storage containers. There are no reported injuries and emergency responders are on the scene. SDG&E is working with first responders to ensure the safety of our employees and the community and will be conducting a thorough review of the events to determine the cause of the accident.”

The fire was still burning after the utility issued the statement, and firefighters were still working to prevent the spread of the flames to the adjoining battery banks.

NBC7 San Diego

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 enormous 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, 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 on Aug. 28 meeting.

The mayor said 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 does not mean the Seguro project will not move forward. Rather, White 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.

A fire at a lithium-ion battery storage facility has flared up again, prompting evacuations.