In what will perhaps be the largest and certainly the most dramatic crisis event in contemporary environmental Southern California history, thousands were left separated from their homes this week while others were told to brace for a potentially massive explosion that was finally averted.
Officials estimated more than 50,000 area residents were affected by the incident caused by a leaking chemical tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, a military contractor.
While the incident began on May 21, authorities thought they had a handle on the emergency. They soon discovered, in fact, quite the opposite.
OCFA Interim Fire Chief T.J. McGovern said on Thursday, May 22, that a day earlier, the Orange County Fire Authority responded to an incident at the site.
“We responded to a chemical vapor release from a tank containing an industrial chemical used in plastic manufacturing,” he said to a large assortment of local, state, national, and international media representatives.
“One of the three tanks affected experienced an increase in temperature, caused by its release valve jammed with molten plastic, so they activated a relief valve and overhead sprinkler system to cool the product resources,” said McGovern, immediately installing ground monitors to keep the site safe.
With the vapor leak, OCFA immediately ordered a smaller scale evacuation, but quickly lifted it after “vapor conditions improved.”
It was then, however, that OCFA officials discovered the valve on the tank in crisis had been molded shut, preventing mitigation efforts, while the chemicals inside were heating up.
OCFA Incident Commander and Division Chief Craig Covey said the Garden Grove company uses MMA (Methyl Methacrylate), a highly toxic and flammable chemical, to mold and manufacture cockpit enclosures for the military’s F-35 fighter.
Just that quickly, the evacuation orders were re-established, causing fear and concern among the affected residents, OCFA officials said.
“We understand how disruptive and frightening this is to the public in our communities, particularly for the residents who have now been asked to leave their homes for their own safety,” said Covey at a press conference held at a mobile command center rapidly assembled at the Los Alamitos Racecourse.
After explaining the logistics and complex and evolving nature of the incident, Covey bluntly said on Thursday there were only two known choices available to authorities.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “I have to share with you, there’s some thoughts here. So, we still have two plans right now, the same options that we were handed when this incident began. Does the tank rupture and spill, or does it blow up?
Part of the OCFA team began immediate plans to build an evacuation plan structured around a blast called a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expansion Vapor Explosion) in the event the worst happened.
With 7,000 gallons left in the failing tank, it’s temperature was at one point measured at 90 degrees, rising one degree per hour, with officials unsure if the tank could blow at 100 degrees or more.
Even then, Covey said firefighters were not resigned to that fate.
“It is not okay with me to sit back and watch this thing fail,” said Covey.
The incident command post inside the racetrack parking lot began to grow as OCFA recruited a union of nearby fire departments, police agencies and openly recruited professors and other MMA subject-matter experts.
Quickly deciphering the potential power of a blast, they announced more mandatory evacuation areas, which were designed in concentric geographic circles to protect residents from the blast, should it occur.
With an evacuation underway, residents from Stanton and a small area in Cypress were taken briefly to the Cypress Civic Center for processing, while the American Red Cross began opening shelters within area schools (see related stories).
One resident, Dusty, in a wheelchair, said she was rolled away from her 55-plus complex, with little notice, and unloaded here.
Residents from small portion of Cypress that was included in the mandatory evacuation zone issued by OCFA began to leave their homes as activity at the Community Center ramped up. Later, they were transferred from Cypress to other shelters once they were opened, officials said.
Firefighters, meanwhile, continued to shower the tanks with water to cool the inner chemical, hoping first that they could prevent an explosion and second, hoping, but unsure, if the chemical would begin to harden or would the pressure build and explode.
The growing seriousness of the situation began to draw in top state officials and experts, including professors and industry professionals seeking to provide chemical consulting to the OCFA.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an emergency declaration, bringing additional resources to the fight, and he joined with Congressman Derek Tran, among others, calling on President Trump to issue a federal emergency declaration, which he did on Sunday.
Federal officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency joined the effort, installing approximately 20 air monitors and providing technical expertise to the growing subject matter team.
District Attorney Todd Spitzer ordered GKN to preserve all records of maintenance and operations as he opened a county investigation of the company, urging anyone with any information to come forward.
“Given the very real risk to human life as a result of this event, it is crucial that anyone who has information about this incident or the industrial operations at GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems, Inc. come forward,” Spitzer said in a statement.
Disneyland Resort, just six miles from the unfolding crisis, issued a statement but did not shut down.
“As of Sunday, May 24, there is an ongoing chemical incident at an industrial facility in Orange County, California, in the neighboring Garden Grove. The incident, which began on May 21 at an aerospace facility, has triggered evacuation orders for thousands of residents across parts of Garden Grove, Anaheim, and nearby communities,” Disney said in the statement.
“Disneyland Resort is approximately five miles from the incident and at this time, is not inside the evacuation zone. While the situation remains fluid and we may see road closures and minor traffic disruptions, there is no direct impact on park operations at this time,” it concluded.
By the weekend, however, Fire Chief McGovern told the media that OCFA had developed a plan.
“Yesterday, we built a specialized team with subject matter experts. We developed a plan to go do an operation last night, late night, to go in, get eyes on the tank and do a recon mission,” he said.
Drones had been providing valuable information, he said, but not enough.
“During that night operation, our firefighters went in, and they were able to visualize the tank. What they found was a potential crack in the tank, which could potentially be relieving some of the pressure,” he said.
“With this new information, it could change our trajectory and our strategy to this event,” said McGovern. “Last night was a successful operation for this emerging incident,” he said.
Covey, too, was upbeat about the prospects of resolution prompted by the crack’s discovery. By then, the OCFA had been joined by a bevy of subject-matter experts, who understood the molecular chain of MMA, the chemical in the tank.
“The fire chief just briefed them (experts). I’ve just briefed them. We (the team) have been together for the last four to five hours, and they’ve come up with some tremendous ideas that we’re going to start taking action on as soon as possible,” said Covey.
By now, the mandatory evacuation area had been expanded to include an area occupied by as many as 50,000 people.
The night missions continued. McGovern said it was too dangerous to expose firefighters during the day but during the Sunday night recon mission, firefighters were relieved to see their strategy taking hold.
The circle of experts and firefighters now believed that the crack that had occurred in the tank had relieved the pressure built up inside of it, said Covey, and this theory was apparently borne out by the nighttime tests performed by the firefighters who faced the danger by approaching the tank directly.
Moreover, the firefighters had torn more of the sheathing and insulation away from the tank to allow more water to begin to cool the liquid MMA even faster. In addition, there was evidence that the MMA was beginning to harden from the outside, like an egg, Covey explained.
While the threat of a massive blast was apparently mitigated, said Covey, the potential of a small explosion remained.
Nevertheless, by the 6 p.m. briefing on Memorial Day, the relief in the voices of OCFA officials was palatable and while still serious, they had real progress to report.
“You know, early on in this incident, it started with us being advised that there are no options and nothing we can do,” said McGovern. “Basically, it was going to be a major explosion, which we’ve been referring to as a BLEVE or a catastrophic spill.”
“That message did not resonate with the firefighters and first responders. We knew we had to come up with a plan, that’s what we had to do. We looked at these issues, and we came up with a plan,” the OCFA fire chief said.
“Today, I’ve been happy to report that the most catastrophic and worst-case scenario was mitigated and resolved. That was the case of a potential BLEVE, it’s not over yet, and I want to reemphasize that it’s not over yet.”
Covey was direct when he jumped behind the outdoor podium. “We did it,” he said.
“I was handed an incident that had two options, a spill or an explosion. As the Fire Chief said, it was unacceptable to us. We put all of our people together, we found a plan, and we instigated it. Okay, that took time, but that tank was ready to blow up (when OCFA arrived).”
Covey then revealed in more detail how the firefighters were able to finally get the information they needed and the danger they were in.
“We were not putting firefighters down range during the daylight,” he said, “when the tank is most vulnerable. So, we worked at night operations, once or twice per night, at the most, and get in there, get a trend, then get out,” the incident commander said.
“Okay, we were tracking those trends. We had to understand the stability of the tank. What we essentially were shooting for, in layman’s terms, is to boil an egg (in its shell). Okay, that’s what we wanted,” said Covey, meaning they wanted the plastic to begin to harden from the outside in.
With confirmation data in hand, he said, OCFA agreed to begin lifting (65%) of the mandatory evacuation orders. Covey announced the lifting of evacuation orders for many areas, while those closest to the disaster site remain in place.
“Safety is still paramount,” he said.
With an accelerated sprint to the finish line now underway, Covey reflected on what could have been one of the biggest vapor explosions in the state’s history which, he now believed, had been averted without a single injury.
“The number one win of this whole thing is we’ve had no injuries to civilians, and we’ve had no injuries to firefighters. It doesn’t get any better for that as an incident commander,” said Covey.
Chris Myers, a federal on-scene coordinator with the Region Nine Emergency Response team of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency had already provided 20 real-time air monitoring instruments and that they were operating them 24 hours a day.
Air quality has not suffered, said Myers, noting that “there have been no exceedance detections during the duration of the event.”
With the crisis averted, local officials began to speak to their residents.
“I want to start by thanking all of our citizens,” said Police Chief Amir Alfara. “We know this has been a challenging and difficult incident. We thank you for your understanding, your resolve,” the police chief said.
He announced the reopening of the 22 freeway and many other streets that had been closed since the incident began.
“The coordination, the bravery, and dedication happening behind the scenes is truly extraordinary,” said Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Kloppenstein.
“We are deeply grateful to every first responder, emergency worker, and city employee who has supported this response. For residents still under evacuation warnings and orders. Please continue to follow the direction of our public safety officials,” she said.
“The work is not over yet,” said County Health Officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, DO.
“There are still some things we need to work through. We need to make sure to wait until it is safe, and that’s why we have a new evacuation zone.
The good news, she said, is that there was no contamination, there were no fumes, there were no vapors (as yet) to come from this incident,” Dr. Kwong said.
“You should feel comfortable going home,” she said.
First District Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who spent much time at the command post, even setting up a small office in the command center to provide firefighters whatever assistance they could, marveled at the bravery and professionalism of the team.
“Last night, our brave firefighters and responding agencies pulled off a dangerous operation in the hazard zone at the tanks to do recon and go on offense due to their bravery and technical skills,” said Supervisor Nguyen.
“All these agencies behind me, our own local, state, federal, and other groups coming together to protect our community, the coordination that has happened to get to this moment is nothing short of incredible,” suggested Nguyen.
“Beyond these agencies here, I’ve been proud to see the outpouring of support from our own community neighbors, helping neighbors, small businesses, and volunteers stepping up and providing for our residents affected by these evacuations. I can’t express how thankful and grateful for our residents and community,” she said.
Adam Schiff, who was just elected to the U.S. Senate and appointed this weekend by Gov. Newsom to fill the vacant seat before he is officially sworn in for a full term visited the site Monday.
“It is wonderful news that one of the tanks of MMA, which had been over the last several days increasing in temperature, and looking like it was going to explode, is now decreasing in temperature, and the risk of that explosion has been much mitigated,” he said.
“It’s not over,” said Fire Chief McGovern, noting “we still have work to do.”
It was clear, however, that the threat of a ticking time bomb of 7,000 gallons of highly toxic and flammable chemicals had been averted, but harder questions remain for a later day.