Toxic explosion feared at California chemical plant as 40,000 nearby residents are evacuated

An estimated 40,000 people across Orange County, California, were under evacuation orders Friday as officials warned a failing industrial tank holding thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals was set to spill or explode.

“We are setting up these evacuations in preparation for these two options: It fails, or it blows up,” Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey said during a news conference. “Please follow our requests and orders for evacuations.”

The compromised tank holds up to 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate, a volatile and flammable substance used to make plastics, officials said. The compound carries multiple risks to human health.

“At very high levels, it can really cause severe respiratory distress and hospitalization,” Orange County Deputy Health Officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong said at the news conference.

Crews were called in starting Thursday afternoon when a tank overheated and began venting vapors at an aerospace components plant in the city of Garden Grove, about 35 miles south of Los Angeles.

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Evacuation orders covered Garden Grove and parts of Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster.

First responders were able to neutralize one at-risk tank using chemicals, but the tank at issue appeared to bulge as it heated up, suggesting the container was dangerously overheated and bound for a critical rupture, according to officials.

By Friday afternoon the leak had stopped, but problems including a faulty valve meant the remaining tank was still an emergency risk.

The crisis is unfolding at a facility for GKN Aerospace, which supplies components for commercial and military aircraft.

The Independent has contacted the company for comment.

No injuries or deaths have been reported, according to officials.

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The tank is currently being sprayed with water to reduce its temperature.

The fire department has installed sand barriers around the tanks to keep any potential spill from reaching storm drains and waterways. A spill would in fact be the preferred outcome, Covey said.

“In a weird world, that’s the best-case scenario, believe it or not,” he said.

An explosion could both transform the chemicals in the tank and send shrapnel flying, Andrew J. Whelton, an environmental engineer at Purdue University, told The New York Times.

“An explosion does not render the chemicals inert — it greatly complicates the hazard and health risk,” he said.

Officials are monitoring the temperature of the tank and will pull back response crews once it gets too high.

Garden Grove police are going door to door asking residents to follow the evacuation orders and have been met with a 15 percent refusal rate, the department told ABC7.

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