Garden Grove gas leak: Live evacuation maps, closures and updates

At her home in Stanton on Thursday, Leticia Rinker, 71, kept thinking she was smelling gas.

She repeatedly checked the burners on her stove. She threw away an old pan, thinking maybe she had burned some grease on it while cooking chicken that day.

Then, her head started hurting.

The smell was still in the air Friday morning when she went for a walk, she said.

“Now I know why I smelled it and why I got the headache,†Rinker said Friday night after evacuating her home while emergency crews frantically worked to stop a damaged chemical tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove from exploding.

Rinker, who is retired, had a long career in the automotive industry. “I know smells,†she added.

Rinker was staying at the evacuation center at the Garden Grove Sports & Recreation Center, with her two pugs, Lulu and Daisy, and her daughter’s two cats, Cedric and Elvis.

She was walking Friday morning at around 11 a.m. when a neighbor called and told her she needed to get the pets and go.

Her daughter and son-in-law, who live with her, were on a trip out of state, so she spent most of the day in her car at the evacuation center with the pets. The evacuees, she said, were remarkably calm, and relief workers fed them “some delicious spaghetti.â€

“Everybody’s very relaxed, just chilling, sitting down,†she said. “A lot of people have their dogs. It’s OK, you know? It’s not a chaos thing.â€

Still, she said, she had no idea when she could go home and was upset she had not grabbed food for the pets because she did not think she would be gone so long.

“I’m just hanging out in my car,†she said from the evacuation site. “I see no sense in going anywhere and wasting my gas, as high as it is.â€

Rinker said she had friends and neighbors who refused to leave.

Rinker has lived in Stanton, near the aerospace manufacturer, for three decades and said she had never experienced anything like this.

“All I need is for my house to explode,†she said sarcastically.

Then, with a sigh: “I’m trying not to think about it. I love my house.â€