Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency over Orange County’s failing chemical tank at risk of exploding in Garden Grove after the crisis forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate from a chunk of the northern part of the county.
“The safety of Orange County residents is the top priority. We are mobilizing every state resource available to support local responders and make sure the community has what they need to stay safe,” said Newsom in a Saturday news release.
The declaration directs the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and all state agencies to help address the emergency and makes state owned properties like the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds available as evacuation shelters as needed.
The evacuation zone stretches from Ball Road to Trask Avenue and from Dale Street to Valley View Street – a large portion of North OC where tens of thousands of residents live.
It comes as Orange County Fire Authority officials warned Saturday morning the temperature in the chemical tank increased from 77 degrees yesterday to 90 degrees today, heating up a degree per hour on average.
Orange County Fire Authority Incident Commander Craig Covey said in an update that letting the tank fail isn’t an option.
“Letting this thing just fail and blow up is unacceptable to us. Our goal is to find something and not allow that to happen, not to let it damage our community, not let it damage our environment. That’s unacceptable,” Covey said in a Saturday update on Facebook.
At the same time, he also said officials are preparing for how to respond if the tank fails or leaks, adding that evacuations will limit life safety hazards.
“We’re preparing for the tank to fail and spill the liquid all over the place. We’re going to try to establish some diking and damming and divert it to a spot that could be a holding area,” he said.
“We’re looking for places that we can push this fluid should it fail and try to prevent it from getting into our storm drains or river channels and ultimately into the ocean to an environmental disaster.”
The incident first began Thursday afternoon when a chemical tank holding 7,000 gallons of toxic liquid – methyl methacrylate –used to make plastic at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove started to increase in temperature.
By Friday, Covey warned the tank would either leak or explode and evacuation zones were expanded.
[Read: Orange County Chemical Emergency: ‘A Leaking Tank or a Tank That Blows Up’]
Click here for more information regarding the evacuation zone and evacuation centers.
On Saturday, Covey said they wouldn’t give up as the failing tank worsened.
“We’re going to try to find a solution. We’re working 24 hours a day to do it,” he said.
“We’re going to do everything we can to mitigate this, protect your residences, protect our environment, and get you back home.”