California: 40,000 people ordered to evacuate over chemical leak fears

Key Takeaways

• Authorities in Orange county, California have ordered the evacuation of 40,000 people over concerns about a chemical leak that threatened to spill or explode.
• The problem arose on Thursday at a facility owned by GKN Aerospace in the town of Garden Grove, where a storage tank holding methyl methacrylate began off-gassing and threatened to fail.
• The chemical, which is highly flammable, is used to fabricate resins and plastics.
• Local authorities originally responded to the incident with a hazmat team on Thursday, ordering local residents to evacuate.
• They lifted the order later that day, but the problem worsened due to “damage to a valve on the tank” that “created additional operational challenges, preventing complete mitigation”, Garden Grove authorities wrote in an evacuation order.