A fire at the world’s largest battery storage plant in Northern California is smoldering after sending plumes of toxic smoke into the atmosphere.

The blaze broke out late Thursday at the Monterey County plant that stores and sells power to Pacific Gas & Electric.

A fire at a one of the world’s largest battery plants in California contained tens of thousands of lithium batteries that store power from renewable energy sources.

A fire broke out at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in Central California Thursday. The battery power plant is the largest in the world according to the company, Vistra, that owns it. The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation orders for nearby residents and closed parts of Highway 1 in response.

Residents living near a power plant in Central California were ordered to evacuate Thursday night after a fire broke out at the facility.

While monitoring a stolen car parked outside of a Mt. Juliet store Sunday, authorities ended up arresting a man with multiple warrants after he reportedly ran out of the store with stolen merchandise worth hundreds of dollars.

Our citizens are very alarmed,” one Morro Bay resident said, after the fire along Monterey Bay forced 1,200 people to evacuate.

As the fire lithium battery storage facility that led to evacuations in Moss Landing last week continues to smolder days later, concerns are being raised about the impacts to the surrounding environment.

Ryan Yamamoto reports on lingering concerns about the environmental impact of the fire at the Moss Landing Vistra Power Plant.