As the smoke clears from devastating Los Angeles wildfires, efforts to clean up the affected areas are being complicated by burnt-out electric and hybrid vehicles and home-battery storage systems.

A major fire Friday at one of the world's largest battery storage plants in Northern California sent up flames of toxic smoke, leading to the evacuation of 1,700 people and the closure of a major highway.

Hundreds of people were evacuated as a massive fire broke out at one of the world’s largest battery storage plants in Moss Landing, California.

Massive fire at California battery plant prompts evacuations and raises concerns about renewable energy storage.

Lithium battery ... at the Vistra battery storage facility in Moss Landing during a press conference in Castroville, Calif., on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group) The county ...

The fire began on Thursday afternoon and roughly 1,500 people evacuated the Moss Landing and the Elkhorn Slough area, according to The Mercury News.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat it. This is a disaster, is what it is,” Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church told KSBW-TV. But he said he did not expect the fire to spread beyond the concrete building it was enclosed in.

The packs can also hold more power than common ion-based batteries. New partnership teases next-gen battery with unbelievable capabilities — here's how it could slash the price of EVs first appeared on The Cool Down.

Sodium-ion batteries show promise as a cheaper, more resilient alternative to lithium-ion technology, but achieving market competitiveness will require major technological advances and supportive market conditions,

Burnt electric vehicles are complicating the work of emergency services in Los Angeles as they clean up after massive fires. Toxins from lithium-ion batteries require specialised equipment to extinguish them.

The Moss Landing fire at a lithium battery plant has poured smoke into the sky above Monterey County. The weather service forecasts wind to push it east.