NEW YORK, May 24 (Reuters) – Experts trying to prevent a tank of hazardous chemicals from exploding in Southern California found a “potential crack” in the container that might be reducing the pressure, a fire official said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Since \u200cFriday, officials have warned that the tank, which contains methyl methacrylate, a flammable chemical used in plastics and manufacturing, \u200ccould rupture and spill up to 7,000 gallons (26,500 liters) of toxic material or explode and endanger other tanks on the GKN Aerospace site.<\/p>\n
Evacuation orders were issued on \u200bFriday for an area in Garden Grove, a suburb roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Los Angeles. Tens of thousands of people are covered by the evacuation orders.<\/p>\n
TJ McGovern, interim fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, said in a video message posted on social media that a team of specialists on Saturday night found “a potential crack in the tank, which could potentially be relieving some of the \u200cpressure in there.”<\/p>\n
Discovering the potential crack was “positive intel”, \u2060McGovern said.<\/p>\n
Authorities are still trying to determine whether the possible crack has relieved pressure in the tank, a spokesperson for the Orange County Fire Authority told Reuters. Lowering the pressure could help avert an \u2060explosion, he said.<\/p>\n
Although officials for now are focused on measuring pressure, the spokesperson said, the crack eventually could allow authorities to gradually drain the chemicals.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Craig Covey, division chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, said the tank’s internal temperature was increasing by about one degree \u200ban hour, \u200band had reached as high as 90 degrees. But early on Sunday, \u200bEPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told CNN’s “State of the Union” \u200cprogram that local officials were working to stabilize the tank by keeping its temperature under 85 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n
“I’m being told this morning that the most likely scenario is one of a low-volume release, where the local authorities are going to be able to monitor, neutralize and contain the threat,” Zeldin told CNN.<\/p>\n
Crews were preparing for a possible spill by looking for ways to dike, dam and divert the liquid into a holding area at the commercial site, rather than allow it to reach storm drains, river channels or \u200cthe ocean, Covey said.<\/p>\n
Health officials have said they were concerned that vapor \u200bfrom the chemical could cause severe respiratory problems with prolonged exposure. Air monitors \u200bdeployed in Garden Grove were not detecting any chemicals or \u200bpollutants on Sunday, the EPA said.<\/p>\n
Sensors located around the tank itself have not picked up any chemical \u200cleaks in the air, the fire authority spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The \u200bOrange County Fire Authority and the \u200bGarden Grove mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday. On Saturday, officials said firefighters were exploring whether a heavy flow of cooling water might slow the curing process inside the tank enough to reduce pressure and \u200bprevent an explosion.<\/p>\n
The incident began on Thursday at \u200cthe GKN Aerospace facility, which specializes in the manufacturing and testing of windows and canopies for commercial and military \u200baircraft, according to its website.<\/p>\n
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday declared a state of emergency for Orange County.<\/p>\n
(Reporting \u200bby Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Sergio Non and David Gregorio)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, May 24 (Reuters) – Experts trying to prevent a tank of hazardous chemicals from exploding in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,136494,50898,74872,611,71209,1009],"class_list":["post-331190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-gkn-aerospace","tag-hazardous-chemicals","tag-lee-zeldin","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-fire-authority","tag-southern-california"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331190","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=331190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}