Growing Risk of Catastrophic Failure at Overheating Garden Grove, CA, Chemical Tank

The temperature inside a malfunctioning chemical storage tank in Garden Grove has risen to dangerous levels as crews continued to try to head off a disastrous explosion and roughly 40,000 people remain under evacuation orders, fire authorities announced early Saturday.

Crews who “put themselves in harm’s way” overnight realized that the interior temperature of the tank — which authorities previously believed had been dropping — was not actually cooling, officials said.

That left fire officials on Saturday morning still racing to find an “out of the box” solution to the compromised tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, amid dire predictions that it could either explode — potentially unleashing a fireball and chemical plume — or crack as 7,000 gallons of chemicals pour out.

Orange County Fire Authority crews first responded to the business on Thursday afternoon, following reports that an overheated tank had begun venting vapors. Firefighters began spraying the tank down with water in order to cool the chemical in the tank – methyl methacrylate, a toxic and highly flammable liquid chemical.

On Friday, worsening conditions forced authorities to set up a roughly one-mile buffer around the tank. 

Fire officials on Friday offered a bleak assessment: The tank would fail and spill 7,000 gallons of “very bad chemicals” into a parking lot — which they described as the preferable option. Or the tank would go into “thermal runaway” and blow up, a more dire scenario.

In order to avoid such a scenario, crews were focused on keeping the temperature in the tank down. They described approximately 100 degrees as the point in which things could go out of control.

Looking at readings from drones of the outside of the tank, crews late Friday believed they had gotten the temperature down to 61 degrees, and were hoping to get it down to 50 degrees, the point where they believed it was possible to neutralize the threat.

Based on those readings, fire crews — aided by a chemist team — went from defense to offense on Friday night and went “in harms way” into the facility to try to neutralize the tank, Incident Commander Craig Covey said in a video update.

But when the fire fighters and chemists saw the actual tank, they learned the actual temperature was higher than they expected.

“Unfortunately, the temperature was 90 degrees,” Covey said. “Yesterday morning, it was 77 degrees when we backed out. It is averaging about a degree an hour increasing.”

An explosion or a rupture and a spill remain two possible outcomes, Covey said.

But authorities are beginning to consider a third outcome — that a “void space” above the liquid chemicals could reduce the pressure and prevent an explosion as crews continue to deluge the tank with water. Further research is needed to determine if that option is realistic, Covey said.

“We are bringing people in from all over the country, talking to people from all over the place, trying to come up with additional options,” Covey said. “Letting this thing just fail and blow up is unacceptable to us.”

While there have been no reports so far of active gas leaks or plumes, the air quality in the area is being monitored and officials have strongly urged residents to adhere to the evacuations given the potential danger.

Evacuation centers have been set up at Freedom Hall at 16801 Euclid Street in Fountain Valley, Savanna High School at 301 N. Gilbert Street in Anaheim, John F. Kennedy High School at 8281 Walker Street in La Palma and Oceanview High School at 17071 Gothard Street in Huntington Beach.

The Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Parade was canceled, though the actual Strawberry Festival itself remained open, according to the city. A planned vote center will not open, and an OC Food Bank was shut down.

Cal/OSHA has confirmed that they will open an inspection report for the GKN Aerospace plant where the tank is located, though they have released no other details.

The plant on Western Avenue has been in the city for more than three decades. Prior to the current crisis, it was primarily known as the worldwide leading manufacturer of cockpit windshields, jet canopies and aviation windows for civil and military aircraft.

The chemical at the center of the crisis — methyl methacrylate — is a highly toxic substance that in the short term can impact a person's respiratory system and cause skin irritation and eye irritation, officials said. But little is known about the long-term effects of the substance on humans, health officials said on Friday. Encountered at high levels, officials said it could cause severe respiratory distress and hospitalizations.

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