GARDEN GROVE (CNS) – Roughly 40,000 people remain under evacuation orders in Garden Grove and surrounding areas Saturday, as authorities continue to monitor a compromised chemical storage tank that authorities said is either going to crack open and leak thousands of gallons of toxic materials or explode.
The lingering threat has also disrupted other planned events in Orange County including plans to open 39 vote centers Saturday and a The Giving Farm food bank operated by the Community Action Partnership of Orange County.
Due to a chemical that became overheated inside a 34,000-gallon tank at GKN Aerospace, 12122 Western Ave., one vote center and three ballot drop boxes are closed and Friday’s scheduled food bank was canceled.
In addition, the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival at the Village Green in downtown Garden Grove, which opened Friday and continues through Memorial Day, has canceled its planned parade and community breakfast. The festival remains open.
Nearby attractions including Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm remain open, but officials said they are monitoring the situation.
Orange County Fire Authority crews and Garden Grove police initially responded around 3:30 p.m. Thursday to GKN Aerospace because the overheated tank had begun venting vapors and triggering a sprinkler system designed to spray water on the tank to cool the material inside. The tank is located in proximity to two other storage tanks.
The chemical in the tank is methyl methacrylate, a toxic and highly flammable liquid chemical used in the manufacture of acrylic plastics.
Firefighters began spraying the failing tank with water in an effort to cool the material inside, and that process continued through the night.
Evacuation orders were initially issued Thursday, but they were lifted Thursday night when crews believed they were making progress mitigating the situation. But Friday morning, the orders were re-instituted “due to changing conditions,” according to the OCFA.
As the morning wore on, the situation worsened, and the evacuation zone was expanded to create a roughly one-mile buffer area around the tank.
Around midday, OCFA Division Chief Craig Covey gave a bleak update online, saying authorities determined “The tank that is in the biggest crisis is in fact unable to be secured and mitigated.”
“There are literally two options left remaining,” Covey said. “One, the tank fails and spills a total of about 6,000 to 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.”
Covey stressed that “there is no active gas leak, no plume in the area,” but he warned residents to heed the evacuation warnings and remain out of the area due to the possible spill or explosion. Officials said air quality was being actively monitored in the area, and all readings were still within healthy limits.
No injuries have been reported as of Saturday morning.
GKN Aerospace, a leading global supplier of vehicle and aircraft components, manufactures acrylic plastics.
It was unclear what caused the material in the tank to overheat.
Covey said OCFA crews were prepared for the possibility of the chemical spilling out of the tank, with “containment barriers” put in place to prevent the material from entering storm drains, river channels or reaching the ocean.
He said a spill of the chemical is actually the “best case scenario, believe it or not,” favorable to an explosion and possible plume of toxic material spreading over the area.
Covey told reporters he went home Thursday night feeling authorities were making significant progress controlling the situation, but then he received a call at 4 a.m. Friday reporting the situation had worsened.
The main issue was a faulty valve on the compromised tank, which prevented crews from being able to access or off-load the chemicals inside. Crews were also unable to introduce a stabilizer to neutralize the material.
As of Friday afternoon, experts were being consulted in an effort to find an alternative way of mitigating the situation, but Covey said absent such a solution, a leak or an explosion were the only two possible outcomes.
“So we’ve assembled a team to think outside the box,” because the manufacturer ran out of ideas to solve the problem, Covey said.
Authorities were “calling people all over the state and country” for help, Covey said.
A leak or an explosion “is going to happen unless some brilliant guy out there figures out how we can mitigate this incident,” Covey said. “This is going to fail… and we’re doing our best to figure out the when and how we can prevent it.”
Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein implored residents to follow the evacuation orders.
“We understand it is frightening people who are worried about their homes, their businesses, their pets and loved ones,” she said. “But this is a serious situation and now is not the time to wait.”
Orange County Health Officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong said the MMA chemical is “very toxic.”
She said there is a scarcity of reports on the effects of exposure to methyl methacrylate.
“It can cause significant irritation in the lungs, the nasal passages, and it can also cause nausea, it can also cause dizziness,” Chinsio- Kwong said.
There are studies how it affects mice, “and if it can have that type of effect in mice it can have that same effect in humans,” she said.
The air quality was being closely monitored and the authorities were using drones to monitor the temperature of the tanks.
Rep. Derek Tran, D-Westminster, issued a statement Friday saying he was “closely monitoring” the situation.
“My office is in close contact with local police, fire, and emergency response officials as they work to contain the hazardous materials, assess air quality, and ensure residents and first responders are safe,” he said. “I am in contact with federal disaster relief officials, including FEMA and the EPA, to urge them to provide any available federal assistance for Garden Grove. I encourage everyone in the affected area to follow guidance from local authorities and avoid the impacted zones until further guidance is issued.”
Garden Grove Police Chief Amir El-Farra said about 15% of the people under evacuation orders were refusing to leave.
He and other officials on the scene urged everyone to adhere to the orders, noting the dangerousness of the situation. Areas of Westminster, Stanton, Park and Anaheim were also affected by the order.
The evacuation zone covers the area north of Trask Avenue, south of Ball Road, east of Valley View Street and west of Dale Street.
Beach Boulevard is closed from Garden Grove Boulevard to Orangewood Avenue and several off-ramps on the Garden Grove (22) Freeway including Beach Boulevard, Knott Avenue and Valley View Street.
Evacuation centers are located at:
— 13641 Deodara Drive, Garden Grove,
— Cypress: 5700 Orange Ave., Cypress,
— 16801 Euclid St., Fountain Valley,
— Savanna High School, 301 N. Gilbert St., Anaheim, and
— Oceanview High School, 17071 Gothard St., Huntington Beach
The closed vote center is at the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center, 13641 Deodara Drive, which is being used as an emergency evacuation center until further notice.
Ballot drop boxes in the evacuation zone are also closed. They are located at:
— Stanton Branch Library, 7850 Katella Ave., Stanton,
— Korean Martyrs Catholic Center, 7655 Trask Ave., Westminster, and
— Chapman Sports Park, 11700 Knott Ave., Garden Grove.
Evacuated voters who do not have their vote-by-mail ballot can request a replacement at any of the remaining 38 vote centers that will open Saturday as scheduled. The can also drop off their completed vote-by-mail ballots at the remaining 125 drop boxes.
More information is available at ocvote.gov/voting.
The Garden Grove Unified School District has canceled classes until further notice at the following campuses:
— Barker Elementary School;
— Bryant;
— Carver;
— Enders Elementary School;
— Garden Park;
— Lawrence Elementary School;
— Wakeham Elementary School;
— Patton Elementary School;
— Bell Intermediate School;
— Alamitos Intermediate;
— Pacifica High School;
— Rancho Alamitos High School;
— Skylark Preschool;
— the Maintenance and Operations Facility; and
— the Lampson Bus Yard.
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