The threat of a massive explosion from a ruptured tank in Garden Grove was eliminated Monday, but Orange County Fire Authority officials stopped short of allowing thousands of evacuated residents to return home due to lingering fears of a toxic chemical release. <\/p>\n
As of Monday afternoon, an estimated 50,000 residents remained under an evacuation order as the crisis at the facility, GKN Aerospace, spilled into its fourth day. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey have no idea when we\u2019re gonna go home,\u201d Jessica Doughty, 31, said Monday, three days after she and her fianc\u00e9e were ordered to leave their Stanton home. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sitting here in the unknown … I just want to go home. I miss my bed,\u201d said Doughty, who was staying at a Red Cross shelter in Anaheim. <\/p>\n
Orange County officials said they were evaluating whether it was safe to reduce the evacuation zone to allow some of the displaced residents to go home. <\/p>\n
Concerns remained that an explosion at the aerospace plant in Garden Grove was still possible, fire officials said. <\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, there was good news for the crews who have been working around the clock to contain the situation. Orange County Fire Authority officials announced they were no longer worried about a worst-case scenario of a catastrophic explosion resulting from a breach of the tank, releasing toxic chemicals over a wide area.<\/p>\n
TJ McGovern, interim chief of the Fire Authority, said firefighters had gained confidence the pressurized tank would not experience a \u201cboiling liquid expanding vapor explosion,\u201d or BLEVE.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe threat of a BLEVE has been eliminated,\u201d McGovern said, but added: \u201cWe still have threats that we are mitigating.\u201d <\/p>\n
Separately, President Trump authorized federal disaster assistance to help cover the costs of coordinating the response effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are grateful for the federal government approving our request and helping strengthen the resources already on the ground to help this community recover safely,\u201d Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. <\/p>\n
More than 785 first responders and other emergency personnel, including firefighters, hazardous materials experts, public health officials and environmental scientists, have been mobilized since Friday, Newsom\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Firefighters were able to get a better handle on the situation after two overnight reconnaissance missions into the 15-acre manufacturing complex on the 12000 block of Western Avenue in Garden Grove. <\/p>\n
Firefighters and the hazardous materials experts worked in collaboration with technicians from GKN Aerospace.<\/p>\n
Late Saturday, the crews entered the facility to make a visual examination of the cracked container, which officials believed was holding 7,000 liquid gallons of methyl methacrylate, a chemical that is routinely used to make plastic. <\/p>\n
The goal was to assess the integrity of the tank, McGovern said.<\/p>\n
Hazardous materials technicians were able to confirm a single crack that night. The compromised container was one of three large tanks at the site containing the chemical. <\/p>\n
While the crews were on the grounds, an alarm sounded, forcing a retreat, McGovern said during Monday\u2019s briefing.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, \u201cwe got good intel\u201d that allowed planning for the second night\u2019s mission, McGovern said.<\/p>\n
Late Sunday, the crews returned and were able to remove some of the tank\u2019s insulation to get a more accurate reading of the temperature inside. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe team safely and successfully removed external insulation material from the tank in order to help advance efforts to cool its contents,\u201d GKN said in a statement. \u201cThis operation followed several days of careful monitoring and work to stabilize the tank.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the new information, the group was able to determine that temperatures had dropped and pressure was no longer building inside, McGovern said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Orange) attributed \u201cthe courageous work of firefighters who were able to get on top of the tank and remove the shroud,\u201d which allowed the emergency crews to better cool the contents. <\/p>\n
Drones deployed earlier had been unable to read gauges showing the internal temperatures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an internal temperature sensor, and the only way to read it is in person,\u201d Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Wayhowe Huang told The Times outside of a command center at the Los Alamitos Race Course on Monday, near the perimeter of the evacuation zone. <\/p>\n
\u201cOf course it was a risky operation because of the possibility of explosion,\u201d Huang said.<\/p>\n
Temperature readings had been rising steadily over the weekend, reaching 100 degrees. Huang said the breakthrough came when firefighters were able strip the outer casing of the tank to allow for better cooling.<\/p>\n
By late Monday, firefighters were still concerned the heat released by the chemical could still lead to a \u201cless forceful explosion,\u201d Huang said.<\/p>\n
The chemical, known as MMA, is a flammable liquid widely used in the production of plastics, according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. If inhaled at high levels, fumes can aggravate a person\u2019s lungs, causing coughing, wheezing and chest tightness. It can also cause nausea, dizziness and skin irritation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still the worry of a thermal eruption of the tank,\u201d Huang said. \u201cNow the footprint of that would be smaller. \u2026 That threat is why we\u2019re still holding those evacuation orders in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Automated sprinklers at the facility have been running since the problem was detected on Thursday, and an additional unmanned hose has also been spraying down the tank.<\/p>\n
GKN Aerospace, which is based in Britain, makes landing gears, jet engines and other materials for commercial and military aircraft at the Garden Grove facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are continuing to work around the clock with the OCFA, the EPA and all relevant federal, state and local agencies to mitigate the ongoing risk of a leak,\u201d GKN said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe apologize for the ongoing disruption this incident is causing and our priority remains its safe resolution, so that residents can return to their homes as quickly as possible,\u201d the company said, adding that it was \u201cextremely grateful\u201d for the efforts of the county, state and federal officials.<\/p>\n
Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer has opened a criminal investigation into the potential disaster. Legal \u201chold\u201d letters have been sent to representatives of GKN Aerospace, demanding the company retain its records that could be relevant to the investigation, said Kimberly Edds, director of public affairs for Spitzer\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
The crisis began Thursday, when one of the tanks began to experience an increase in temperature, which triggered temporary evacuations.<\/p>\n
At one point, the tank began to bulge, prompting fears among emergency workers of a potential BLEVE.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s Garden Grove facility has undergone four inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 2018, resulting in 10 violations, public records show. <\/p>\n
The Red Cross has opened seven emergency shelters for people affected by the mandatory evacuations. The organization said thousands of meals and snacks have been provided. These operations have been supported by more than 100 Red Cross disaster workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been doing a really good job \u2014 the Red Cross really came through,\u201d said Edward Cho, 37, a cook who has been living with his 72-year-old mother, a cancer patient. <\/p>\n
The pair were camped out in the basketball gymnasium at Savanna High School in Anaheim.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are taking care of each other,\u201d Cho said. \u201cIt\u2019s like poison gas is bringing people together. That\u2019s a good story, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy managing editor Shelby Grad and staff writers Lisa Boone and Hailey Branson-Potts contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The threat of a massive explosion from a ruptured tank in Garden Grove was eliminated Monday, but Orange…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,3655,6947,4330,11078,136494,137677,1024,3335,6843,288,65694,36898,11431,137351,137676],"class_list":["post-332231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-chemical","tag-crew","tag-firefighter","tag-garden-grove","tag-gkn-aerospace","tag-hazardous-material-expert","tag-monday","tag-official","tag-operation","tag-resident","tag-tank","tag-temperature","tag-threat","tag-tj-mcgovern","tag-wayhowe-huang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332231","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=332231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}