{"id":332411,"date":"2026-05-26T03:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T03:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/332411\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T03:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T03:24:08","slug":"thousands-can-return-home-after-catastrophic-explosion-risk-at-california-tank-is-averted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/332411\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands can return home after \u2018catastrophic\u2019 explosion risk at California tank is averted"},"content":{"rendered":"

The risk of a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d explosion at a chemical tank<\/a> in a Los Angeles-area city was averted by Monday, but around 16,000 people remained under evacuation orders as some risks remained, officials said.<\/p>\n

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The liquid in the 7,000-gallon tank of methyl methacrylate at the Garden Grove facility started to overheat Thursday following an issue with a valve in its refrigeration system, ushering in a tense several days as first responders and experts worked to avoid an explosion. <\/p>\n

On Monday, officials said the biggest risk, of a potential \u201cboiling liquid expanding vapor explosion,\u201d or a BLEVE, had been averted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most catastrophic and worst-case scenario was mitigated and resolved,\u201d interim Orange County Fire Chief TJ McGovern said at a news conference Monday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not over yet, and I want to re-emphasize that: It\u2019s not over yet. We still have work to do,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

McGovern said firefighters \u201cstill have to mitigate a fire and very small explosion concern, and also a spill potential.\u201d <\/p>\n

Evacuation orders in the city in northern Orange County, about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles and 4 miles from Disneyland in Anaheim, were reduced from around 60,000 to 16,000 Monday.<\/p>\n

The incident began Thursday at a GKN Aerospace facility, where Orange County fire officials reported a \u201cvapor release.\u201d Further investigation found that temperatures in a tank of methyl methacrylate, a toxic chemical used to manufacture resins and plastics, were rising, officials said.<\/p>\n

The tank overheated after a valve that is part of a circulating refrigeration system, designed to keep the tank at 50 degrees, malfunctioned, Orange County Fire Division Chief Craig Covey said Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the valves in that system froze up, so it was no longer being circulated,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd due to that failure, the tank went into the heating-up process because it wasn\u2019t continuing to be chilled.\u201d<\/p>\n

A BLEVE and a spill at the property could have been one of the worst chemical events in state history, Covey has said.<\/p>\n

A temperature gauge read 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest the gauge would go, at one point. By Monday it had dropped to 93 degrees, Covey said.<\/p>\n

Millions of gallons of water have been poured onto the tank to lower the temperature inside, Covey said, and deluge sprinklers also mitigate the risk of a fire.<\/p>\n

On Monday, a crack in the tank released enough pressure without causing a leak, which allowed for more offensive measures, he said. That night, a crew was able to strip insulation and other materials off the sides of the tank so the water could cool the contents more quickly, Covey said.<\/p>\n

Covey said GKN has been responsive. \u201cThey have absolutely been hip-to-hip with us down there\u201d and hired a contractor to assist in the incident, he said.<\/p>\n

There have been no injuries, Covey said. <\/p>\n

With the progress, officials reduced the size of the evacuation zone, allowing the majority of the 60,000 people temporarily displaced to return home. <\/p>\n

Evacuation orders for the remaining 16,000 would remain in effect through Monday night and be re-evaluated Tuesday, Covey said. <\/p>\n

Officials said at the news conference that there has been no contamination from the incident or the response efforts. <\/p>\n

Air monitoring with 20,000 instruments in the region has detected \u201cno exceedances\u201d throughout the incident, Chris Myers, the federal on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency, said Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Garden Grove Police Chief Amir El-Farra asked for patience from those who have been told to leave their homes and from the residents of the city. He urged people to obey the existing evacuation orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease understand that we are doing this for your safety,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The risk of a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d explosion at a chemical tank in a Los Angeles-area city was averted by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-332411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332411","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=332411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}