Authorities and residents in Southern California braced Sunday for a leak or explosion while emergency crews keep trying to secure a storage tank holding thousands of gallons of a volatile chemical at an aerospace facility in Garden Grove. Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in Orange County, the Guardian reports. The action frees up state agencies and resources to back local crews and opens state-owned sites to house some 40,000 evacuees, who have been ordered out of the area for days. The evacuations have expanded to include Garden Grove, Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park, and Westminster, per the Los Angeles Times.
The tank, which holds an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate—a flammable chemical used in plastics and resins—began releasing vapor on Thursday and could either explode or spill into the parking lot, authorities say. Firefighters have been trying, with limited success, to cool it with water. An emergency team also added a neutralizing agent to a nearby tank in an effort to cut the risk. Division chief Craig Covey of the Orange County Fire Authority said the tank's temperature hit about 90 degrees Fahrenheit and is climbing roughly a degree an hour as responders work on backup plans to contain any blast or leak. Drones were monitoring temperatures at 10-minute intervals, per the AP.
When a certain temperature is reached, all crews will leave the area, authorities said, the tank will expand, then explode or leak. "Letting this thing just fail and blow up is unacceptable to us," Covey posted. An evacuee who went to his parents' home said he's frustrated. "I don't think that they should have dangerous chemicals in a neighborhood area, especially that dangerous that they have to evacuate people," said Marco Solano, 32. "But again, it's not up to me."
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