California: 40,000 people ordered to evacuate over chemical leak fears | California

Authorities in Orange county, California have ordered the evacuation of 40,000 people over concerns about a chemical leak that threatened to spill or explode.

The problem arose on Thursday at a facility owned by GKN Aerospace in the town of Garden Grove, where a storage tank holding methyl methacrylate began off-gassing and threatened to fail. The chemical, which is highly flammable, is used to fabricate resins and plastics.

Local authorities originally responded to the incident with a hazmat team on Thursday, ordering local residents to evacuate. They lifted the order later that day, but the problem worsened due to “damage to a valve on the tank” that “created additional operational challenges, preventing complete mitigation”, Garden Grove authorities wrote in an evacuation order.

By Friday, new evacuation orders had expanded to residents in six cities.

“We have a tank that is actively in crisis,” Orange county fire authority division chief Craig Covey told reporters at a news conference.

“There are literally two options left remaining. One: the tank fails and spills a total of about 6-7,000 gallons of very bad chemicals into the parking lot in that area. Or two: the tank goes into a thermal runaway and blows up, affecting the tanks that are around them that have fuel or the chemicals in them as well.”

“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.”

Crews have created containment barriers with sandbags in case there is a chemical spill from the tank to prevent the toxic chemical from getting into storm drains or reaching creeks or the nearby ocean.

Dr Regina Chinsio-Kwong, the county health officer, said if the chemical heats up, it can release a vapor that is harmful to people’s health. It can cause respiratory issues, itching and burning eyes, nausea and headaches.

Garden Grove police chief Amir El-Farra said some 15% of those facing evacuation orders were refusing to leave, according to the Orange County Register. The city has established at least two shelters for evacuees.

Garden Grove is about 38 miles (61km) south of downtown Los Angeles and less than a mile from Disneyland’s two theme parks, which were not under evacuation orders Friday.

The evacuation orders cover residents of five other Orange County cities — Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster.

Covey, the county fire division chief, urged residents to take the order seriously. “We are setting up these evacuations in preparation for these two options: it fails or it blows up,” Covey said. “Please follow our requests and orders for evacuations.”

GKN Aerospace is a division of a British corporation that produces airplane engines and other aircraft parts.