After the fire broke out inside part of Vistra’s Moss Landing battery plant Jan. 16 at around 3pm, the highly volatile lithium-ion batteries encased within entered what is called “thermal runaway,” a phenomenon where the temperatures get so hot—up to 2,000 degrees—that nothing can be done but let the fire burn itself out, which took several days.
And while every fire is bad for air quality, lithium-ion battery fires emit toxic gases, the most dangerous being hydrogen fluoride. The batteries at the site also contained heavy metal such as nickel, manganese, cobalt (NMC) and copper, which can also harm organisms, and which was released in the air with the fire’s plume, later settling into soil or Elkhorn Slough.
On Feb. 4 in Alameda County Superior Court, four Monterey County residents—Mary-Eliza Schmidt, Austin Walker, Renee Davidson and Bruce Thomas—filed a joint lawsuit against Vistra and PG&E, among other parties, for harm caused to them relating to the fire that started Jan. 16 at Vistra’s Moss Landing battery plant.
The firm representing the plaintiffs, Singleton Schreiber, LLP, hosted a town hall on Zoom Jan. 20 to talk about the residents’ legal options should they opt to choose to sue for damages, whether to health or property.
The complaint’s justification for having Alameda County be the proper venue is because co-defendant PG&E is based in Oakland, and has some regulatory oversight over Vistra’s Moss Landing operations.
The part of Vistra’s plant that burned was an array of batteries put inside a pre-existing structure, and the lawsuit notes it is “dangerously unique as one of only 1-percent of lithium-ion storage that are indoors.”
The complaint also notes that NMC batteries are being phased out in the industry because they are less safe than lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are becoming the industry standard. (The producer of Vistra’s Moss Landing batteries, South Korea-based LG Energy Solution, LTD., is named as a co-defendant.)
In a statement put out Feb. 6 on behalf of Singleton Schreiber, it touted that activist Erin Brockovich has joined forces with the firm “to fight for accountability.”
“This is yet another example of corporate negligence putting profits over people,” Brockovich said in the statement. “Time and again, we see companies cut corners on safety, only for communities to suffer the consequences. We will not stand by while families breathe in toxic air and worry about the long-term health effects of this disaster. They deserve transparency, justice and real protections.”
The statement adds the plaintiffs are seeking “a full investigation into the root causes of the fire, industry-wide adoption of updated safety standards and fire prevention measures [and] compensation for damages and disruptions caused by the incident.”
Meranda Cohn, a spokesperson for Texas-based Vistra, says while the company is aware of the lawsuit, it won't be commenting at this time.
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Editor's Note 2/8/25: The original version of this story has been updated to reflect that Vistra has no comment on the lawsuit at this time.