A volatile chemical tank in Southern California has put firefighters in a race against heat and time, prompting officials to bring in specialists from across California as evacuation shelters in several nearby cities filled to capacity.
Evacuation orders remained in place for an area covering tens of thousands of people in the Garden Grove suburb of Los Angeles.
California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Orange County, and his office pleaded for residents to follow evacuation orders.
“We have brought in subject matter experts from all across the state to think completely outside the box, and we had some really good productive conversations today,” Craig Covey, division chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, said in a video posted on social media.
He did not elaborate on possible solutions.
Shift to offensive from defensive as risk grows
Evacuation shelters were reported at full capacity in Anaheim, Fountain Valley, La Palma and Huntington Beach.
After drone readings on Friday indicated that water being sprayed on the tanks appeared to be stabilising conditions, firefighters re-entered the danger zone overnight, Mr Covey said earlier.
Once crews reached the tank’s gauge, however, they discovered the internal temperature had climbed to 32C — rising from 25C when responders had previously withdrawn.
The temperature was increasing by about one degree an hour, he said. “That’s the bad news.”
Officials have warned since Friday that the tank, which contains methyl methacrylate, a flammable chemical used in plastics and manufacturing, could rupture and spill up to 26,500 litres of toxic material or explode and endanger nearby tanks.
Many Los Angeles evacuees spent the night in evacuee centres
Mr Covey said firefighters were examining whether a heavy, sustained flow of cooling water could slow the curing process inside the tank, easing pressure enough to avert an explosion.
“Letting this thing just fail and blow up is unacceptable to us,” he said.
The emergency began on Thursday at the GKN Aerospace facility in Garden Grove, a city of about 172,000 people roughly 50 km south of Los Angeles.
According to its website, the site specialises in manufacturing and testing windows and canopies for commercial and military aircraft.
GKN said it was working with “all relevant experts” to solve the problem.
“We sincerely apologise for the significant disruption to the many local residents and businesses who have had to be evacuated,” a GKN spokesperson said in a statement.
Mr Covey said teams moved overnight from what he described as a “defensive” posture to an “offensive” operation, supported by chemists from the manufacturer’s emergency response team.
The aim was to neutralise a nearby 15,000-gallon tank and cut its explosive potential if the smaller tank were to fail.
“We did put people in harm’s way last night,” Mr Covey said.
Health officials have said they were concerned that vapour from the chemical could cause severe respiratory problems with prolonged exposure.
Air-quality monitors had not detected vapour as of the latest health update cited by officials.
“You are safe as long as you are out of the zone that was determined to be an evacuation zone,” Dr Regina Chinsio-Kwong of the Orange County Health Care Agency said on Friday.
Mr Covey said crews were also preparing for the possibility of a spill, weighing options to dike, dam and divert the liquid into a holding area at the commercial site rather than allow it to flow into storm drains, river channels or the ocean.
“We are not giving up,” he added.
