May 23 (UPI) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday declared a state of emergency in Orange County, Calif., in response to a hazardous chemical incident there.
Residents and businesses started to be evacuated on Friday afternoon after a tank containing methyl methacrylate in Garden Grove, Calif., at the GKN Aerospace manufacturing plant started to leak vapor, KABC and The Orange County Register reported.
The tank started to heat on Thursday, started to bulge and reached what is called a “boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion,” Craig Covey, an Orange County Fire Authority division chief, told The Los Angeles Times.
More than 44,000 people have been evacuated from the area because officials are concerned that the tank could either explode or fail and begin to leak, though they said if the tank leaks — which is also bad — it means the chemical at least would no longer be at risk of igniting.
“The safety of Orange County residents is the top priority,” Newsom said in a statement.
“We are mobilizing every state resource available to support local responders and make sure the community has what they need to stay safe,” he said.
Methyl metacrylate, or MMA, is stored in liquid form and is used to make plastics.
The tank holds about 7,000 gallons of the chemical, which if it gets into the air can be toxic to people at high concentrations.
The tank also is surrounded by several others containing fuel and other chemicals, which has especially raised concern among the first responders because if it explodes, the others around it may ignite, as well.
If the tank fails and leaks, it will spread thousands of gallons of the chemical through a parking lot and the entire surrounding area, which also poses potential health and safety risks for nearby people.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said that it is coordinating resources between state and local partners to be sure that first responders “have all the resources necessary to safely respond to this dynamic situation.”
Newsom encouraged Orange County residents, and especially those in Garden Grove, to pay attention to potential evacuation requests as the situation continues to develop.
