La Verne water-plant BESS fire forces evacuations as thermal runaway spreads to a second bank
Photo: Ellen Whisk, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A 1 MW lithium-ion BESS at Metropolitan Water District's F.E. Weymouth treatment plant in La Verne ignited around Sept 22 and thermal runaway spread into an adjacent enclosure, forcing evacuations while damaged batteries still await removal. For underwriters and risk managers this is a clean municipal/water-utility BESS case: co-located solar, prolonged post-fire hazard, and evacuation/community cost sitting alongside property damage — not a remote solar-farm-only narrative. | Source: https://www.lavernedaily.org/with-evacuation-over-damaged-batteries-still-must-be-removed-from-la-verne-water-plant/