{"id":211496,"date":"2026-05-23T17:43:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T17:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/40000-southern-californians-ordered-to-evacuate-amid-threat-of-chemical-explosion-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T17:43:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T17:43:56","slug":"40000-southern-californians-ordered-to-evacuate-amid-threat-of-chemical-explosion-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/40000-southern-californians-ordered-to-evacuate-amid-threat-of-chemical-explosion-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"40,000 Southern Californians ordered to evacuate amid threat of chemical explosion – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Authorities in Southern California are racing to prevent a potential hazmat explosion at an aerospace manufacturing facility in Garden Grove, where an estimated 40,000 people are under evacuation orders.
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Additional evacuation shelters opened Saturday morning as emergency crews worked through the night to stabilize the tank, which contains methyl methacrylate, a toxic chemical used to manufacture resins and plastics, including Plexiglass.
Officials said Friday night that cooling efforts appeared to be lowering the tank\u2019s temperature and buying time for engineers and hazmat experts to test what Orange County Fire Authority incident commander Craig Covey called \u201coutside-the-box\u201d ideas aimed at preventing a disaster.
\u201cIt is not OK with me just to sit back and watch this thing blow up or fail,\u201d Covey said.
Initial evacuation orders were issued Thursday after a \u201cvapor release\u201d at the manufacturing site. The situation seemed to be stable, but fire authorities said Friday that valves on a tank became inoperable.
\u201cWe are setting up these evacuations in preparation for these two options: It fails or it blows up,\u201d Covey said.
Covey said Friday that the tank\u2019s temperature had dropped to about 61 degrees after crews sprayed a continuous curtain of water on it. The chemical\u2019s \u201chappy place\u201d is at 50 degrees, he said.
The lower temperatures might allow fire personnel to get closer to the tank overnight to implement some of the ideas submitted to authorities, he said.
A \u201cfull night shift\u201d was assigned to the emergency, and another update is expected Saturday morning.
In a video announcement,<\/a> Covey urged caution for people in the area of the leak, which includes parts of the cities of Garden Grove, Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster.
Garden Grove is about 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
\u201cIt is a highly toxic substance,\u201d OCFA Division Chief Nick Freeman said at an afternoon news briefing. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely flammable and in its current state very reactive, and can cause that explosion.\u201d
The tank was not emitting the chemical on Friday, authorities said, and no injuries have been reported.
Major Southern California attractions remained open Saturday as officials monitored the situation. Knott\u2019s Berry Farm, located about 6 miles north of the site, said it has not been impacted and was coordinating with fire officials.
\u201cThe safety and wellbeing of our guests and team members is a cornerstone of our business,\u201d a park spokesperson said Friday. \u201cWe are working closely with our partners at the Orange County Fire Authority to actively monitor the situation. At this time, the park has not been impacted.\u201d
Disneyland Resort, about 7 miles northwest of the facility, also remained open, according to a Disneyland official, who said the resort was actively monitoring the emergency and supporting employees affected by the evacuation orders.
The California Governor\u2019s Office of Emergency Services said it activated<\/a> the State Operations Center to support the local response.
Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, the health officer for Orange County, said the emergency is unprecedented and it is difficult to predict an outcome.
\u201cThis is a unique situation,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cWe don\u2019t have information of a similar situation where this happened, right? So we\u2019re going into unique times, and we have limited information.\u201d
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>, methyl methacrylate can cause lung and skin irritation, headaches, coughing and wheezing, and has been suggested but not proven as a possible cause of colon and rectal cancers.
Chinsio-Kwong added on Friday that anyone who can smell the chemical\u2019s fruity and \u201cheavy\u201d odor may be exposed to health risks. She said no one has reported such a smell, and local air quality officials have not detected the chemical in the environment.
Garden Grove Police Chief Amir El-Farra told reporters that the evacuation zone<\/a> includes about 40,000 residents.
The EPA is supporting local authorities with air monitoring. A spokesperson said OCFA is the lead agency handling the emergency.
Authorities first responded to reports of a \u201cvapor release\u201d from multiple chemical storage tanks at the facility on the 12100 block of Western Avenue in Garden Grove at about 3:22 p.m. Thursday, the OCFA said in a statement.
Initial evacuation orders were rolled back after authorities were able to cool the tanks, the OCFA said. But lack of valve control prompted the renewed evacuations on Friday, it said. A tank holding about 6,000 to 7,000 gallons is being cooled by a sprinkler system and an unmanned hose line, the agency said.
A spokesperson for the manufacturer on site, GKN Aerospace, said by email: \u201cThe situation at our Garden Grove site remains ongoing, and we are fully focused on working with emergency services and the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of our employees and the local community.\u201d
Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeAuthorities in Southern California are racing to prevent a potential hazmat explosion at an aerospace manufacturing facility in Garden Grove, where an estimated 40,000 people are under evacuation orders.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Additional evacuation shelters opened Saturday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-211496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}