Evacuation Orders Lifted in Escondido After Lithium-Ion Battery Fire at SDG&E Facility that also Prompted School Closures

Thousands of people in Escondido are affected by an incessant fire that sparked Thursday at SDG&E’s Northeast Operations Center, a lithium-ion battery energy storage facility.

The blaze sparked just after noon and is burning in the 500 block of Enterprise Street, just a few blocks from where Interstate 15 intersects with state Route 78 and quickly prompted evacuations of more than 500 businesses and 1,500 SDG&E customer homes, according to the electricity agency.