Orange County officials revealed more details on the potential areas that could be affected if the leaking chemical tank in Garden Grove explodes. The toxic leak was reported at the GKN Aerospace facility at 12122 Western Ave. around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 21 and has resulted in the evacuation of around 40,000-50,000 people. Orange County Fire Authority crews responded to the facility and found that the tank was leaking methyl methacrylate, a volatile and flammable liquid used to make acrylic plastics. As crews worked to cool the overheating tank, they initially thought they had a handle on the situation, but later confirmed on Friday that they were not able to fully stabilize the tank and that it was only a matter of time before the tank would rupture or explode.
...“We’ve indicated some daily wind shifts that can and will occur throughout the incident and are constantly monitoring the wind and weather as we expect it to change from day to night,” Freeman added. Officials said the highly toxic methyl methacrylate chemical poses severe health risks to people and animals in the immediate area. “Respiratory is our primary concern, so it’s a respiratory irritant,” Freeman said. “It can start off very mild but it can progress to a point where you would probably require hospitalization, if not more.”
...“We’ve indicated some daily wind shifts that can and will occur throughout the incident and are
constantly monitoring the wind and weather as we expect it to change from day to night,” Freeman added Officials said the highly toxic methyl methacrylate chemical poses severe health risks to people and animals in the immediate area. “Respiratory is our primary concern, so it’s a respiratory irritant,” Freeman said. “It can start off very mild but it can progress to a point where you would probably require hospitalization, if not more.”
...As of Saturday, May 23, around 50,000 residents were evacuated from all areas north of Trask Avenue, south of Ball Road, east of Valley View Street and west of Dale Street. Cooling efforts are ongoing and the tank’s temperature is being monitored by a drone. “They discovered the primary tank that’s in crisis, we were unable to access the valves,” said OCFA Division Chief Craig Covey. “The valves are broken, they’re gummed up with the agent and we’re unable to offload the material through the systems that it has.” “This is not precautionary. 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. There are literally two options left remaining. 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.” (Read More)
