Authorities in Southern California ordered evacuations for about 40,000 people after a chemical storage tank at an aerospace plastics facility began venting hazardous vapors and raised fears the tank could fail or explode, Orange County Fire Authority said. The incident occurred at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, a city in Orange County.
Fire officials said the storage tank holding between 6,000 and 7,000 gallons (22,700 and 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate overheated Thursday and started venting vapors into the air. Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey said Friday that officials were racing to prevent an explosion or tank failure and were also trying to determine timing and possible options to stabilize the situation.
Covey said the tank could crack and release the chemical onto the ground or could explode. “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.”
As officials worked overnight, they expanded the evacuation orders on Friday to residents in five other Orange County cities: Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster, after authorities were unable to stop the leak. Officials said no injuries or deaths had been reported.
Later Friday, Covey said authorities had been able to maintain the tank’s temperature, buying time to figure out how to fix it. Fire officials also said they were preparing for the possibility of a chemical spill by creating containment barriers with sandbags to keep the toxic chemical from reaching storm drains, creeks or the nearby ocean.
County health officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong said if the chemical heats up, it can release vapor that is harmful to people’s health. She said it can cause respiratory issues, itching and burning eyes, nausea and headaches, reflecting the concern that residents in the evacuation area could be exposed to airborne effects if conditions worsened.
Crews initially were able to neutralize one of two damaged tanks, but Covey said later Friday that the remaining tank was “in the biggest crisis.” GKN Aerospace said specialized hazardous material teams were assessing the situation, and a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement that there were “no reports of injuries at this time” and that safety of employees, responders and the surrounding community remained the priority. The spokesperson added that the company would provide “verified updates as soon as more information becomes available.”
Residents described how quickly the evacuation orders disrupted their day. Danny Pham said his roommate banged on his door around 7 a.m. Friday and told him he needed to leave immediately, and Pham said he had been working late the night before at a Vietnamese restaurant and had not seen the news. “It was shocking to me,” Pham said. “I didn’t know how serious it would be. I never knew that a thing like this could happen.”
Pham left within minutes, taking only his wallet and passport, and sheltering at a friend’s restaurant in a neighboring city. By late Friday afternoon, he was still trying to find where he would stay for the night and worried he might only have the clothes he was wearing if the evacuation lasted longer than expected.
Another resident, Kim Yen, said she was settling in for the night Thursday when she heard a sirenlike sound on her phone and received an alert telling her to leave. Yen said the notice was difficult for some in the Vietnamese community to interpret because it was in English, and she urged people to pay attention to the alerts from authorities. “They are family,” Yen said. “I’m hoping they stay alert and listen to the news and the authorities. This is scary.”
Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein said officials understood that the evacuation was frightening but said the orders were in place for residents’ safety. Local Vietnamese television stations translated updates from officials and urged residents to take the situation seriously, while police officers went door to door to ensure evacuations were carried out.