California governor declares state of emergency over looming chemical disaster

    By
    Jason Mitchell
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    California’s governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday in response to the looming threat of chemical disaster in Orange county.

    The proclamation directs the governor’s office of emergency services and other state agencies to provide additional support to Orange county responders. The governor’s office is also making state-owned properties available to shelter the 40,000 people ordered to evacuate from the area.

    “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.â€

    Beach Boulevard was closed off after the evacuation order was given, in Garden Grove on Saturday. Photograph: Ted Soqui/EPA
    A street in the evacuation zone is closed off to the public, in Garden Grove on Saturday. Photograph: Ted Soqui/EPA

    On Thursday, a storage tank holding methyl methacrylate began off-gassing and threatened to fail at a facility in the town of Garden Grove owned by GKN Aerospace, local authorities say. The highly flammable chemical is used to fabricate resins and plastics.

    Local authorities say the tank, which holds 6,000-7,000 gallons of the chemical, will either explode or leak its contents into the parking lot.

    Firefighters have attempted to reduce the temperature of the storage tank by dousing it with water. Those attempts appear to be failing.

    People arrive at Freedom Hall, an evacuation center, in Fountain Valley, California, on Saturday. Photograph: American Red Cross Southern California Region/AP

    An emergency response team entered the facility last night to try adding a neutralizing agent to a separate, nearby tank “to reduce its explosive potentialâ€, Orange county fire authority division chief Craig Covey said in a video statement on Saturday.

    When the team saw the temperature gauge, the tank had reached 90F – about 13 degrees higher than the last time it had been read, the day before. Covey said the tank’s temperature appeared to be rising by about 1 degree per hour.

    Emergency responders were preparing to dike and dam the contents in the event of a spill and mitigate health risks in the event of an explosion. At the same time, responders are trying to come up with “out of the box†strategies to avert the disaster entirely, Covey said.

    “We’re bringing people in from all over the country, talking to people 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.â€

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