The L.A. County Fire Department refrained from commenting this week about a firefighter union’s concerns over how, why and where the county approves battery-energy storage systems, or BESS facilities.
Firefighters Local 1014, which represents about 3,400 firefighters throughout L.A. County, sent Fire Chief Anthony Marrone a “cease and desist notice” dated Jan. 2 over energy-storage systems near “residential occupancies within Los Angeles County.”
Fires at lithium-ion storage facilities have continued to spark concerns with the firefighters’ union, as the incidents, which can take days to extinguish, “have already caused serious firefighter injuries and long-term health consequences,” per the letter.
Alarm bells went off after firefighters heard of a plan to put one of the battery facilities next to a fire station in the city of Industry, said Matthew Duhamell, a director for Firefighters Local 1014, who confirmed the letter.
The missive states the facilities are mixed-use, where firefighters live and work, which echoes concerns Acton residents have been sharing for years. Canyon Country and Castaic residents joined in the chorus last year over two separate projects.
“They had wanted to literally put a battery-storage facility right behind one of our stations,” Duhamell said, referring to a project near Fire Station 43. “And then we started looking at other projects that were a little too close to the stations where our members work at.”
The concerns are “coming from a place of firefighter safety,” said Duhamell.
The Fire Department, which previously spoke at community meetings about how the facilities are being approved and built within existing fire codes, sent an email Tuesday evening to say the agency had “no comment,” in response to the letter.
L.A. County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger issued a statement Thursday in response to the letter via email from Helen Chavez Garcia, Barger’s director of communications.
“The supervisor’s office has received the correspondence from the firefighters’ union regarding BESS. We are reviewing the concerns raised and appreciate stakeholders sharing their perspectives.”
The request comes as L.A. County has continued to move forward on battery-energy storage system considerations, particularly in the north county region, where the moves have drawn legal concerns.
Acton residents sued and won a judgment over another facility, the Fullmark BESS project, in which a judge’s ruling found the county had violated its own existing rules regarding BESS facilities in the approval. The status of that project was not immediately available as of this story’s publication.
During that legal battle, Canyon Country residents began to raise concerns about a new facility that opened up near Sierra Highway and Soledad Canyon Road, which prompted a summer safety meeting last year.
In July, the city invited an inspector with the L.A. County Fire Department’s code-enforcement division and a project consultant, who talked about why the Canyon Country project was much safer than the nation’s largest at Moss Landing, which caught fire for days, earlier in the year.
“We do go over and above what the codes require, in the sense that we require the worst-case failure scenario so that we can anticipate that — out of an abundance of caution and due regard,” Josh Costello, a Fire Department inspector, said at the July meeting.
He also said the department requires technical test reports and modeling to validate any claims about a facility.
However, one of the outcomes from the July meeting was an exchange between the fire-safety officials and Santa Clarita Assistant City Manager Frank Oviedo, who was putting a voice to a question several residents had asked that night.
“Let me just ask the question outright,” Oviedo asked at the meeting. “Can these fires be put out?”
L.A. County Assistant Fire Chief Pat Sprengel, who also attended the meeting, didn’t immediately answer, and the project’s consultant jumped in to say no.
“I’ll answer that one,” said Brian Fink, a retired fire chief who now advocates for BESS. He also said the safety risk is the same from one as a Tesla’s battery or an e-bike’s. “Your best option is to let the (battery) container that’s involved burn itself out. Water is not effective. Neither is foam. There is no product that will put out a lithium-ion battery — in your e-bike, in your cellphone, in your electric scooter or in these (battery) cabinets.”
The local concerns remain as the county looks at a facility in Castaic, which residents say puts the community at risk, because of its proximity to the freeway and the potential for a crash or fire.
That project wasn’t presented to the Castaic Town Council until concerns were raised by council members, which also upset residents.
A motion by Barger in June 2023 calling for the L.A. County Department of Regional Planning to create an ordinance for “best practices” in siting a BESS, which would say where BESS facilities would be permissible, has yet to complete a draft for review, according to county officials Thursday.
“That ordinance is expected to begin environmental review after the draft is completed and may be presented to the Board of Supervisors at the end of this year,” according to an email Thursday from Chavez Garcia in Barger’s office.
