![\"Evacuees](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HMN2XI4FKACT3CTIZIV7IRORMI.jpg\")
Evacuees from an aerospace chemical plant tank leak move to another shelter after the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center closed for the night in Garden Grove, Calif., on May 22, 2026.Ethan Swope\/AP Photo\/Ethan Swope<\/p>\n\u201cThis thing is going to fail, and we don\u2019t know when,\u201d Covey said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing our best to figure out when or how we can prevent it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials ordered residents in Garden Grove to leave and expanded evacuation orders Friday to some residents of five other Orange County cities \u2014 Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster \u2014 after being unable to stop the leak overnight on the tank at GKN Aerospace, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft.<\/p>\n
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No injuries or deaths have been reported, authorities said.<\/p>\n
In an update later Friday, Covey said authorities have been able to maintain the tank\u2019s temperature, buying time to figure out how to fix it.<\/p>\n
Garden Grove is about 38 miles (61 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles and less than a mile from Disneyland\u2019s two theme parks, which were not under evacuation orders Friday. The city is known for its vibrant Vietnamese community, one of the largest of any U.S. city.<\/p>\n
Danny Pham said he was deep in a dream when his roommate banged on his door around 7 a.m. Friday morning and told him he needed to leave immediately. Pham had been working late the night before at a Vietnamese restaurant and had not seen the news.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was shocking to me,\u201d said Pham, who lives only a couple blocks from the plastics plant. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how serious it would be. I never knew that a thing like this could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
He left minutes later, grabbing only his wallet and passport, and took shelter at a friend\u2019s restaurant in a neighboring city.<\/p>\n
By late Friday afternoon, Pham was still trying to figure out where he would stay the night and worrying that he had only the clothes on his back, possibly for days to come.<\/p>\n
Covey said crews have created containment barriers with sandbags in case there is a chemical spill from the tank to prevent the toxic chemical from getting into storm drains or reaching creeks or the nearby ocean.<\/p>\n
Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, the county health officer, said if the chemical heats up, it can release a vapor that is harmful to people\u2019s health. It can cause respiratory issues, itching and burning eyes, nausea and headaches.<\/p>\n
Crews were initially successful and were able to neutralize one of two damaged tanks, but Covey said they determined Friday morning that the remaining tank was \u201cin the biggest crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
GKN Aerospace said specialized hazardous material teams are assessing the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no reports of injuries at this time and our priority remains the safety of our employees, responders, and the surrounding community,\u201d a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. \u201cWe will provide verified updates as soon as more information becomes available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim Yen, a retiree in Garden Grove, was settling in for the night Thursday when she heard a sirenlike sound coming from her phone. An alert told her she needed to leave her home, which was just two blocks from the chemical leak.<\/p>\n
As Yen drove to her daughter\u2019s house in Seal Beach, she worried that others in the local Vietnamese community might ignore or not understand the evacuation alert because it was in English.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are family,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping they stay alert and listen to the news and the authorities. This is scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yen, who is originally from Vietnam and has lived in Orange County since 1980, quickly stopped by her house Friday morning to grab important documents and medications. By then her neighborhood was \u201ca ghost town,\u201d and she was comforted to see police officers going door to door to make sure everyone had evacuated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that this is frightening,\u201d Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein said. \u201cBut the evacuation orders are in place for your safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local Vietnamese television stations translated updates from officials and urged residents to take the situation seriously.<\/p>\n
Evacuees from an aerospace chemical plant tank leak move to another shelter after the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center closed for the night in Garden Grove, Calif., on May 22, 2026.Ethan Swope\/AP Photo\/Ethan Swope<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Rodriguez reported from San Francisco, Rush from Portland, Oregon, and Schoenbaum from Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis thing is going to fail, and we don\u2019t know when,\u201d Covey said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing our best to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,4103,18,17],"class_list":["post-329235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-evacuations","tag-general-news","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}