State of emergency: 40,000 evacuated as toxic MMA tank unstable in California

Tens of thousands of residents are facing risk as mandatory evacuation orders are in place on Saturday, May 23.

Thousands of residents have been put under forced evacuations as the firefighters are racing against time trying to stop a dangerously hot chemical storage tank from either overflowing toxic materials or exploding.

The ordeal started on Thursday when the GKN Aerospace facility, located on Western Avenue in Garden Grove, experienced problems with its 34,000-gallon tank of MMA. MMA is a combustible and poisonous substance utilised in producing plastics. The chemical storage tank was heating up due to a malfunctioning valve, which stopped access to the material.

A stark assessment, conducted by Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey, revealed that the tank can no longer be secured.

Covey said, “There are literally two options left remaining. One, the tank fails and spills a total of about 6,000 to 7,000 gallons of very bad chemicals… or two, the tank goes into a thermal runaway and blows up.”

As per officials, the “best-case scenario” is if a controlled spill occurs.

Around 4,000 people in parts of Garden Grove, Westminster, Stanton, and Anaheim have been evacuated within a one-mile radius of the facility.

Classes have been suspended indefinitely in over a dozen schools of the Garden Grove Unified School District. The main roads affected are Beach Blvd. and some exits from State Route 22.

Local landmarks such as Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm are operational, but keeping an eye on the situation.

Till now, no injuries have been reported, and the air quality index remains healthy.

Firefighters continue spraying the tank with water to cool it, while drones track internal temperatures as officials decide to wait for either rupture or explosion.