PRUNEDALE >> Never Again Moss Landing, a local watchdog group, released a report claiming a lack of oversight and several key failures contributed to the Jan. 16 fire at Vistra’s Moss Landing battery storage facility.

Community members gathered at Prunedale Grange Monday night to listen to the group’s presentation.

The group claims the battery storage facility held more than 50,000 lithium-ion batteries in a tightly packed, double-stack layout with less than 6 feet of space in between rows, which they say contributed to the severity of the fire when the suppression systems failed.

“Vistra installed and operated a high-risk, densely packed indoor storage layout that was prone to completely burn up all the batteries on the floor,” said Ed Mitchell, a volunteer with Never Again Moss Landing.

During the presentation, Mitchell alleged Vistra and state regulators failed to ensure adequate safety measures, citing design flaws and insufficient regulation of the storage facility.

Never Again Moss Landing also criticized the California Public Utilities Commission for prioritizing technological development over public safety, calling for stricter regulations, including mandatory plans for worst-case scenarios. The report recommends building firewalls inside battery storage facilities to slow fires and give operators more time to respond.

“Do you see any intervening firewalls, like maybe you could have built two of them in that case, in between and gain more time to keep the fire from spreading to one section?” Mitchell said. “They didn’t do that.”

Monterey County officials have announced plans to collect more data and continue sampling while taking into account community sampling, during monthly updates to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

County Supervisor Glenn Church and Monterey County officials agree the facility should remain offline until further safety measures and updated emergency plans are reviewed and approved.

Despite its criticism, the group said it supports clean energy but insists it must be implemented with safety and transparency. The group said it supports the Battery Energy Safety and Accountability Act, or AB 303, championed by Assemblymember Dawn Addis — which will remove battery energy storage facilities from the California Energy Commission’s opt-in certification program and return the power to local communities on whether to accept new battery plants.

Additionally, AB 303 will “establish reasonable limitations on where battery energy storage facilities can be located,” Addis said during a press conference in January, saying the facilities should be away from environmentally sensitive areas like flood zones and areas with high risk of fires.