Evacuation orders and warnings remained in place Friday, Sept. 6, as fire and hazardous-materials crews continued to monitor a lithium ion battery fire in west Escondido.
The orders were prompted the day before when a battery storage fire broke out an SDG&E battery storage facility at 571 Enterprise St. A San Diego County Office of Emergency Services map showed that Enterprise Street was closed between Mission Road and Auto Park Way. Escondido’s city alert stated that the area east of Alpine Street, south of Mission Road, west of Enterprise Street and north of Auto Park Way was under a mandatory evacuation.
Affected areas included the Escondido Auto Park, where business was curtained under a shelter-in-place warning. A car dealership employee said that the air had tested clean as of about 1 p.m. Friday, but appointments and other operations were closed for the day.
“Sampling locations and screening levels were identified under the guidance of the County and City Incident Coordinator, who have reviewed all results along with SDG&E and have determined that the air quality does not pose a health risk for those on site or in the evacuation area,” the utility and city reported in a joint statement issued Friday.
As a precaution, however, the Escondido Fire Department is keeping evacuation orders and warnings in place until further notice, the city stated.
The fire broke out Thursday afternoon in one of 24 battery storage containers at SDG&E’s facility, the utility and city stated. Escondido firefighters have been on the scene along with San Diego County’s Hazardous Materials Division and the county’s health department.
SDG&E and Escondido stated that the fire will be observed until it burns out, which could be about 48 hours.
“Due to the nature of the systems, industry standard is to allow the fire to burn out when it can be done safely and in a controlled environment,” the statement read. “SDG&E will continue to work closely with fire officials until the storage container has been fully extinguished, which could take up to 48 hours.”