Emergency evacuation orders cover 40,000 residents in Southern California after a chemical storage tank at the GKN Aerospace facility began leaking toxic vapors…
The tank, which holds methyl methacrylate, is overheating and at risk of a major rupture or explosion, according to the Garden Grove Fire Chief…
Hazardous materials teams are working through the night to cool the tank, but drones show the internal temperature is still rising despite all efforts…
Evacuations now span across Garden Grove, Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park, and Westminster as the danger zone expands…
Schools in the area are shuttered and shelters are filling up as thousands flee to stay clear of the potential toxic plume…
The chemical is highly flammable and irritating, and officials are warning that an explosion could spread the hazardous material across several square miles…
Residents are frustrated and scared, with many families displaced for the second straight night without a clear timeline for returning home…
Authorities are setting up sandbag barriers to prevent any spill from reaching storm drains and potentially the local water system…
40,000 people under evacuation orders after chemical tank leak in Southern California
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. —Authorities in Southern California on Friday were racing to figure out how to prevent the explosion of a storage tank that has been leaking a hazardous chemical used to make plastic parts, as some 40,000 people were under evacuation orders in the area.
A storage tank holding between 6,000 and 7,000 gallons (22,700 and 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate overheated Thursday and began venting vapors into the air at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, a city in Orange County, the local fire authority said.
The tank could fail and crack, releasing the chemical onto the ground, or it could explode, Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey said Friday.
“This thing is going to fail, and we don’t know when,” Covey said. “We’re doing our best to figure out when or how we can prevent it.”
Officials ordered residents in Garden Grove to leave and expanded evacuation orders Friday to some residents of five other Orange County cities — Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster — after being unable to stop the leak overnight on the tank at GKN Aerospace, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft.