Small fire contained at Terra-Gen battery storage in Valley Center

What happened

A small fire was reported at the Terra-Gen Energy Storage System in Valley Center on the evening of 16 March 2026. Terra-Gen said its emergency management system detected a smoke alarm in one battery storage unit at about 5:29 p.m. The Valley Center Fire Department and the San Diego County Hazardous Materials Division attended and monitored the site until 8:00 p.m. The company said on-site safety systems kept the event to one storage unit, suppressed the small fire, and limited it to a small amount of smoke. It reported no threat to the public and no evacuation order.

Lessons learned

1. A smoke alarm in a single battery unit gave the operator and attending services time to monitor a contained event.
2. The operator reported that site safety systems, not only the external response, kept the event to one unit and a small amount of smoke.
3. Detection, suppression and isolation should be kept ready so a unit-level alarm does not spread.

Source

valleycenter.com