Tens of thousands of people were ordered to leave their homes in California on Friday after a huge chemical tank began to leak, sending toxic fumes over a heavily populated area and posing the risk of an explosion.<\/p>\n
The tank contained 7,000 gallons (26,000 liters) of methyl methacrylate, a volatile and flammable liquid used to make plastics, with firefighters warning the situation was serious.<\/p>\n
“There are literally two options left,” Incident Commander Craig Covey said.<\/p>\n
“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 around them that have fuel or chemicals in them as well.<\/p>\n
“We are setting up these evacuations in preparation for these two options: it fails, or it blows up,” he said.<\/p>\n
The incident unfolded in the Garden Grove area of Orange County, southeast of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Garden Grove Police Chief Amir El-Farra said about 40,000 people were affected by the evacuation order, with several thousand refusing to leave their homes.<\/p>\n
Aerial footage filmed by local TV stations showed jets of water being sprayed at the tank, which has a capacity of 34,000 gallons.<\/p>\n
Covey said later Friday that efforts to cool the tank had been successful.<\/p>\n
“It’s down to a temperature around 61 degrees, with 50 being its happy place so those efforts are succeeding,” Covey said in a video update.<\/p>\n
“Our group is going to do everything they can to come up with a third, a fourth, a fifth option,” he added.<\/p>\n
– ‘Best-case scenario’ –<\/p>\n
Orange County health officer Regina Chinsio Kwong said the large exclusion zone around the tank was a necessary precaution.<\/p>\n
“If it does explode and there is a vapor, you are all safe as long as you are out of the zone that was determined to be an evacuation zone,” she said.<\/p>\n
She appealed for anyone who might notice “a fruity and heavy smell” to alert authorities.<\/p>\n
“Smelling it doesn’t mean you’ve reached a level that causes symptoms. But we don’t want you to smell that. So we need to know if you’re smelling it.”<\/p>\n
No injuries had been reported by Friday evening, and there was no immediate indication as to what caused the leak, which was initially reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Covey said crews were preparing for a chemical spill, which he described as a “best-case scenario” and far preferable to an explosion and toxic plume.<\/p>\n
Responders were working to put containment barriers in place to prevent any spilled material from reaching storm drains or river channels that funnel into the ocean.<\/p>\n
The US Environmental Protection Agency says methyl methacrylate is irritating to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes in humans.<\/p>\n
“Respiratory effects have been reported in humans following acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) inhalation exposures,” a fact sheet on the agency’s website says.<\/p>\n
“Neurological symptoms have also been reported in humans following acute exposure.”<\/p>\n
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