The Monterey County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution to proclaim a local state of emergency to address the various concerns surrounding the Vistra Energy battery power storage facility fire in Moss Landing that began last week.

Lithium-ion batteries at the facility caught fire Thursday. Due to potential hazardous fumes from the fire, county health officials advised residents to stay indoors, keep windows and doors closed, limit outdoor exposure and turn off ventilation systems. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

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Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.