GARDEN GROVE, California — California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Orange County on Saturday as more than 50,000 residents remained under mandatory evacuation orders, displaced by the threat of a catastrophic explosion at a British-owned aerospace facility where a massive tank of toxic industrial chemical has been slowly failing for three days.
The declaration came as Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey delivered a sobering assessment at the command post outside the GKN Aerospace Transparency facility on Western Avenue in Garden Grove, roughly 30 miles south of Los Angeles. Temperatures inside the compromised tank, originally believed to be cooling overnight, were instead found to be rising at approximately one degree per hour — reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit by Saturday morning after standing at 77 degrees the previous evening.
“The safety of Orange County residents is the top priority,” Newsom said in a statement Saturday. “We are mobilizing every state resource available to support local responders and make sure the community has what they need to stay safe.”
The crisis began Thursday afternoon when firefighters responded to reports of vapor releasing from a 34,000-gallon tank of methyl methacrylate, a flammable industrial chemical used in the manufacture of aerospace plastics and synthetic resins. What initially appeared to be a manageable hazmat situation deteriorated by Friday morning when officials determined the tank could not be stabilized and issued expanded mandatory evacuation orders covering a roughly 10-square-mile zone across Garden Grove, Stanton, Cypress, portions of Anaheim, Buena Park, and Westminster.
Covey, speaking from the command center on Friday, did not soften his language. “This is as real as it gets. It’s the worst-case scenario I’ve ever faced in my career,” he told reporters. “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 into the parking lot in that area. Or two, the tank goes into a thermal runaway and blows up, affecting the tanks that are around it that have fuel or chemicals in them as well.”
On Saturday, Covey acknowledged that crews had entered the danger zone overnight in an attempt to stabilize a secondary tank adjacent to the leaking one, putting responders in direct harm to prevent the situation from worsening. “We did put people in harm’s way last night,” he said, explaining the decision as necessary to ensure the additional tank would not compound a potential rupture or explosion.
The tank in question is estimated to still contain approximately 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate. The chemical, heavier than air, would settle downward if released as a vapor, posing acute inhalation risks to anyone within the exposure zone. Orange County Health Officer Regina Chinsio-Kwong warned that an explosion could convert the remaining liquid into an airborne vapor cloud capable of causing severe respiratory distress, skin and eye irritation, and in concentrated doses, significant organ stress.
University of Southern California Assistant Professor of Chemistry Elias Picazo explained the self-reinforcing nature of the threat in stark terms. “In an uncontrolled environment with a leak, you can potentially have a lot in the atmosphere, and any flash or spark or even temperature can cause what is known as a runaway reaction,” Picazo said. “Heat initiates the reaction, but the reaction releases heat, and so you get what we call ‘runaway,’ where it’s uncontrolled. It can lead to fires, explosions, where pressure really builds up very quickly.”
The GKN Aerospace Transparency facility manufactures landing gear and aircraft components for both commercial and military aviation. The company is a subsidiary of the British aerospace conglomerate GKN. Democratic Congressman Derek Tran, whose district includes Garden Grove, said Friday he had spoken directly with GKN leadership and demanded the company take full responsibility for the disruption. GKN Aerospace did not provide a public statement by Saturday.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced Saturday that his office had opened a formal investigation into the cause of the tank failure, appealing publicly to GKN employees to come forward as witnesses. “If you want to come forward and you want to be interviewed and you want to tell us what you know, now is the time,” Spitzer said at a news conference, adding that those who delayed cooperation would not be treated with the same consideration as early witnesses.
Nine emergency shelters were activated across Orange County, with most reaching capacity by Saturday. Thousands of families spent a second consecutive night sleeping on cots at facilities including John F. Kennedy High School in La Palma and Freedom Hall in Fountain Valley. Ju Pyo, sheltering with her husband and three children at Kennedy High, told reporters her family had been turned away from hotels and was among the last admitted to the shelter. “We are lucky,” she said.
Fifteen campuses in the Garden Grove Unified School District remained closed, and the annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival canceled its Saturday parade and 5K marathon, though other festival events moved forward. Orange County officials confirmed that a vote center at the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center had been converted into a shelter site.
Covey said Saturday that emergency teams were consulting specialists across the country in search of a third option beyond allowing the tank to fail or explode. “Letting this thing just fail and blow up is unacceptable to us,” he said. “Our goal is to find something and not allow that to happen.” He acknowledged the solution would require unconventional thinking but did not outline any specific technical approaches under consideration. Contingency plans were confirmed to be in place for both a spill and an explosion scenario.
No timeline for when residents might return home had been announced. The evacuation zone covers the area bounded by Trask Avenue to the south, Ball Road to the north, Valley View Street to the west, and Dale Street to the east. Residents and businesses in the zone were urged to call the City of Garden Grove 24-hour information line at 714-741-5444 or visit ggcity.org/emergency for updates. The Eastern Herald is continuing to follow the unfolding Orange County chemical crisis as rescue teams search for a solution.
