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Chances of another fire sparking at Moss Landing power plant draw concerns

MOSS LANDING, Calif. (KION) - Almost a week since the Vistra power plant fire broke out, the County of Monterey had updates for the community, including the power plant status, plans to move forward, and concerns from the community.

Although no flames or smoke has been visible as of Sunday, Joel Mendoza, Chief of North County Fire, says they are not in the clear just yet.

"I asked the plant operators yesterday to come up with a count of the batteries, their condition, and how they have been affected. I don't think we would be evacuating anybody. I don't think would be closing down any roadways. And so the short answer is yes, the potential is there for ignition, for a flare-up. But I think it would be contained to the property," said Mendoza.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says there is no detection of any risk to public health based on air monitoring data.

That data comes from nine monitoring stations at and around the Vistra energy battery power plant.

However, two of those stations may have been down.

"Two indicated no data. I sent that over to Paul Amato and asked if he could find out what why that is," said Maia Carroll, Public Information Officer with Monterey County.

KION asked if fire impression symptoms were bypassed and if so why.

"That's what we want to find out. We don't know what happened yet, and that's what we want to determine through our root cause analysis. It will be thorough. It will be methodical. It will be detailed. It's going to take some time. And we want to know exactly what happened," said Brad Watson, Director of community affairs for Vistra Energy.

Brad Watson with Vistra Energy says that they are in no rush to resume operations, and are waiting on investigations to reveal when it is safe to do so.

"I believe that we will be testing soil in the area if there are indications around the site that there might be some compounds or constituents that we think need to be tested. So there might be some soil testing there," said Watson.

Although the flames are out, many people have been talking about experiencing health issues.

The Monterey County Health Bureau says that some people did seek medical care for air quality-related symptoms after the fire broke out.

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Dania Romero

Dania Romero is an reporter at KION News Channel 46.

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