An \u201cunprecedented\u201d situation was taking hold in Orange County on Friday, as a tank at an aerospace firm was at risk of exploding and releasing a highly toxic chemical that can cause severe respiratory distress and lead to hospitalization, officials said.<\/p>\n
An estimated 40,000 residents have been asked to evacuate, affecting portions of the cities of Garden Grove, Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Stanton and Westminster. Disneyland is outside of the evacuation zone. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is highly volatile, it\u2019s highly toxic, it\u2019s highly flammable,\u201d said Craig Covey, a division chief with the Orange County Fire Authority and the incident commander. Officials said they can\u2019t recall a similar situation happening before. <\/p>\n
So what\u2019s the science of the leak and why do officials say it is so dangerous?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s happening? <\/p>\n
There are three large tanks with a highly toxic chemical called methyl methacrylate, or MMA, used to make plastic, around the 12000 block of Western Avenue in Garden Grove.<\/p>\n
One tank that is the most compromised and in crisis has about 7,000 gallons of the chemical left in it, Covey said. <\/p>\n
There are two options with what will happen to the tank, Covey said, which started experiencing a rise in temperatures Thursday. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne, it fails and cracks, and all the product leaks out onto the ground,\u201d Covey said, and efforts are underway to try to prevent the liquid from \u201cgetting into the storm drains and the river channels and into our oceans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chemical leak at GKN Aerospace<\/p>\n
The Garden Grove facility neighbors an elementary school and residential neighborhood.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the best-case scenario, because once it leaks, it\u2019s no longer at risk of exploding. From there, teams in hazardous material suits can go in and \u201cneutralize and mitigate the vapors that will be coming off of that.\u201d <\/p>\n
The worst-case scenario is an uncontrolled explosion. \u201cIf you\u2019ve ever seen videos of tank cars on a railroad track blowing up, and that fireball it puts out, and it blows half the tank car a half a mile down the train track, that\u2019s the incident potential we are dealing with if this suffers a catastrophic failure,\u201d Covey said.<\/p>\n
Those were the options: \u201ca leaking tank or a tank that blows up,\u201d Covey said at a briefing Friday afternoon. \u201cThis is going to happen unless some guy behind me here figures out how we can mitigate this incident. This thing is going to fail. We don\u2019t know when.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident took place at GKN Aerospace, which builds engine structures, landing gear and other products for commercial and military aircraft.<\/p>\n
What are the health risks of an explosion?<\/p>\n
MMA is very toxic. Short-term exposure involving inhaling the chemical\u2019s vapors \u201ccan cause significant irritation in the lungs, the nasal passages, and it can also cause nausea and it can also cause dizziness,\u201d said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, Orange County\u2019s health officer. <\/p>\n
At very high levels of exposure, \u201cit can really cause severe respiratory distress and hospitalization,\u201d Chinsio-Kwong said. <\/p>\n
The evacuation is large in part due to the potential of a plume of toxic vapors. <\/p>\n
Officials said the chemical is heavier than air, so it would settle and sink into the lower areas around that facility if there\u2019s an explosion. Officials are planning for the risk of the chemical blowing into other areas. <\/p>\n
Methyl methacrylate can easily evaporate and linger near the ground as a dangerous vapor, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. If inhaled at high levels, these fumes can aggravate a person\u2019s lungs, causing coughing, wheezing and chest tightness. It can also cause nausea, dizziness and skin irritation.<\/p>\n
Although the EPA has classified the chemical as \u201cnot likely\u201d carcinogenic to humans, long-term exposure has been linked to serious organ damage.<\/p>\n
Why can\u2019t officials take the toxic chemical safely out of the tank, without a leak or explosion?<\/p>\n
Of the three tanks with the toxic chemical, crews were able to add a chemical to one tank to neutralize its volatility, Covey said. They haven\u2019t been able to do that with a second tank, but it is not in crisis. <\/p>\n
But the tank that is most in crisis has valves that are broken and \u201cgummed up,\u201d and so the stabilizing chemical can\u2019t be added to the explosive chemical, Covey said. <\/p>\n
The broken valves also mean that crews can\u2019t drain the tank of the explosive chemical, according to Orange County Fire Authority division chief Nick Freeman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are unable to get anything out, and we were unable to get anything in to stabilize these things,\u201d Freeman said. <\/p>\n
Officials are trying to see if there are other ways they can resolve the situation without a spill or explosion. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have assembled a team to think outside the box … [we] are calling people all over the state and the country to get together with ideas how we can safely go in there and depressurize a pressurized tank and mitigate the exposure that it has,\u201d Covey said. <\/p>\n
The emergency started to develop Thursday, when one of three tanks started to experience an increase in temperature. A relief valve was activated and an overhead sprinkler system was activated to cool down the chemical, said interim Orange County Fire Authority Chief TJ McGovern. <\/p>\n
The tank in greatest crisis was already bulging on Thursday. \u201cIt got to a point where it does what we call a BLEVE, which is a \u2018boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion,\u2019\u201d Covey said. <\/p>\n
Officials initially had success in cooling tanks with sprinklers, Covey said, but conditions worsened Friday when they discovered they could not offload a neutralizing agent in the failing tank because the valves had broken and were gummed up. <\/p>\n
Is there an active chemical leak right now?<\/p>\n
As of mid-afternoon Friday, there were no toxic chemicals leaking from the tank. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve cooled it down enough. That purge valve that is on top of it is no longer purging any kind of product,\u201d Covey said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing in the air right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the tanks on Thursday released vapor after the tank experienced an increase in temperature. In response, a relief valve was activated, and the tank was cooled down with an overhead sprinkler system. <\/p>\n
In an update on Friday night, Covey said emergency crews have been able to maintain the temperature of the tank by continuously spraying it with water.<\/p>\n
That \u201cpositive news\u201d was \u201cbuying us time to continue to sort out: How do we fix this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Will officials know in advance if an explosion is imminent?<\/p>\n
Drones are monitoring the temperature of the tank, Covey said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have a set temperature where, when it reaches that point, we know the tank is going into thermal runaway, and we\u2019re going to pull everybody out of the area, make sure it\u2019s safe, and let the tank do what it\u2019s going to do,\u201d Covey said. <\/p>\n
Are people cooperating with directions to evacuate?<\/p>\n
Garden Grove police chief Amir El-Farra said most people are evacuating, but about 15% are refusing to evacuate. <\/p>\n
Could the evacuations last for days?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have an answer for you on that,\u201d El-Farra said. <\/p>\n
How big is the evacuation zone?<\/p>\n
The evacuation zone is roughly between one to three miles away from the failing chemical tank, which is located northeast of the corner of Western and Lampson avenues. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s near the failing chemical tank?<\/p>\n
There are residential homes less than 400 feet east of the failing chemical tank in the city of Stanton. <\/p>\n
Are people evacuating beyond the evacuation zone?<\/p>\n
The Orange County Superior Court has recommended nonessential personnel leave the courthouse in Westminster, which is outside the evacuation zone. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An \u201cunprecedented\u201d situation was taking hold in Orange County on Friday, as a tank at an aerospace firm…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":816160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,331278,331276,331277,115,78168,2038,331282,2961,224,5337,1408,1036,19153,331280,30956,331281,80980,331279],"class_list":["post-816159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-chemical-explosion","tag-chemical-tank","tag-craig-covey","tag-crisis","tag-evacuation-zone","tag-exposure","tag-garden-grove-chemical-explosion","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-official","tag-orange-county","tag-product","tag-temperature-thursday","tag-toxic-chemical","tag-uncontrolled-explosion","tag-valve","tag-vapor"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116622207716273739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}