Chemical tank ‘on the edge’ of exploding in California as crews try to avert potential disaster
Firefighters were trying to cool a chemical tank “literally on the verge of exploding” in Southern California on Saturday as they worked to avoid a disastrous “worst-case scenario,” the incident commander said.
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The 7,000-gallon tank containing methyl methacrylate, a toxic chemical used to make resins and plastics, could also trigger an explosion in a nearby 15,000-gallon tank that contains the same substance, Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) Incident Commander Chief Craig Covey told NBC News on Saturday.
“We’re talking about probably one of the worst chemical incidents in California history,” he said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Orange County on Saturday and ordered his Office of Emergency Services and other state agencies to support affected residents.
Problems that have prompted authorities to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Garden Grove, Calif., and parts of nearby towns include loss of control of the valves and increased heat inside the reservoir that has already reached the volatile 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit range, Covey said.
These temperatures are the prelude to a “thermal runaway” that could trigger an explosion, he said.
“We are literally on the brink,” he added.
On Saturday, firefighters continued to use sprinklers and hoses to cool the facilities. They hope the process will trigger a “hardening” of the chemical, which would slow its heating enough to thwart an explosion.
Covey said there is a possibility of a “worst-case scenario” in which the three tanks on site – including a 4,500-gallon tank – all explode.
The hazardous materials events began Thursday with a “steam release” in the aerospace manufacturing plant’s 7,000-gallon tank, OCFA said in a statement.
GKN Aerospace first responders may have initially measured erroneous temperature readings because they were taken outside the tanks’ inch-thick steel walls, Covey said. On Saturday morning, some firefighters got dangerously close to the stored chemicals and discovered they could read an internal temperature far higher than anything they had seen, he said.
The new assessment measured reservoir temperatures rising from 77 to 90, with an average increase of 1 degree per hour Saturday afternoon, Covey said.
“We are doing everything we can to find ways to mitigate this,” he said. “The worst case scenario is this fireball.”
Even if an explosion is averted, officials fear the tank could rupture and the chemical could flow into nearby storm drains and into the Pacific Ocean. Covey said officials are working on contingency plans, including the possibility of preventing some of the chemical from entering storm drains, as well as efforts to “dam, dam and divert it” if that happens.
“It’s serious,” Covey said. “It’s real.”
Orange County Health Officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong said it’s unlikely people outside the evacuation zone will face health risks, but she cautioned the incident “is a unique situation.”
“We have no reports of a similar situation where this happened,” she said at a news conference Friday.
Evacuation orders were issued for Garden Grove, about 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, as well as the neighboring cities of Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster. Garden Grove Police Chief Amir El-Farra said Friday the orders affect about 40,000 residents.
Newsom’s emergency declaration unlocks additional state resources, such as state-owned property and fairgrounds, that could serve as shelter for evacuees, the governor’s office said.
