Newsom declares emergency over OC chemical tank explosion threat

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday as a 7,000-gallon chemical tank at a Garden Grove aerospace facility threatened to leak or explode, forcing tens of thousands of northern Orange County residents from their homes.

The industrial crisis in northern Orange County is among the most serious the region has faced in recent years, with evacuation zones spanning a wide corridor of Garden Grove and officials racing to prevent a tank failure that could send toxic chemicals into storm drains, river channels and ultimately the Pacific Ocean.

The tank at GKN Aerospace, holding 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate — a chemical used in plastic production — began heating uncontrollably Thursday afternoon, according to Voice of OC. By Saturday morning, its temperature had climbed from 77 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit in a single day, rising at roughly one degree per hour.

Orange County Fire Authority Incident Commander Craig Covey said allowing the tank to fail was not an option. "Letting this thing just fail and blow up is unacceptable to us. Our goal is to find something and not allow that to happen, not to let it damage our community, not let it damage our environment. That's unacceptable," Covey said in a Saturday Facebook update.

Officials are simultaneously running cooling operations around the clock and preparing contingency measures. "We're preparing for the tank to fail and spill the liquid all over the place. We're going to try to establish some diking and damming and divert it to a spot that could be a holding area," Covey said, according to Voice of OC.

Environmental containment is a parallel priority. "We're looking for places that we can push this fluid should it fail and try to prevent it from getting into our storm drains or river channels and ultimately into the ocean to an environmental disaster," the incident commander said.

In a Saturday news release, Newsom said the state has fully committed its resources. "The safety of Orange County residents is the top priority. We are mobilizing every state resource available to support local responders and make sure the community has what they need to stay safe," the governor said.

The evacuation zone runs from Ball Road to Trask Avenue and from Dale Street to Valley View Street, spanning a broad section of northern Orange County. Officials expanded the perimeter Friday as conditions worsened. The Costa Mesa Fairgrounds was designated as an emergency shelter for displaced residents.

Covey pledged that crews will not relent until the crisis is resolved. "We're going to try to find a solution. We're working 24 hours a day to do it. We're going to do everything we can to mitigate this, protect your residences, protect our environment, and get you back home," he said in the Saturday Facebook update.