{"id":211703,"date":"2026-05-25T23:11:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/risk-of-devastating-explosion-has-been-eliminated-in-california-toxic-chemical-tank-incident-officials-say-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T23:11:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:11:50","slug":"risk-of-devastating-explosion-has-been-eliminated-in-california-toxic-chemical-tank-incident-officials-say-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/risk-of-devastating-explosion-has-been-eliminated-in-california-toxic-chemical-tank-incident-officials-say-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Risk of devastating explosion has been \u2018eliminated\u2019 in California toxic chemical tank incident, officials say – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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LA PALMA, Calif. \u2014\u00a0Southern California officials said Monday the risk of a devastating vapor explosion has been avoided in an incident involving a storage tank <\/a>containing methyl methacrylate, a toxic chemical used to manufacture resins and plastics.
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A crack in the tank has released pressure and the internal temperature is decreasing, the Orange County Fire Authority said Monday, circumventing the worst-case scenario.
The tank started to heat up and bulge last week, prompting concerns that it would rupture and the chemical inside would explode or leak.
\u201cWe are happy to report that the threat of a BLEVE is now off the table. That threat has been eliminated,\u201d interim Orange County Fire Chief TJ McGovern said in an update posted on X, using an acronym to refer to boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion.
The incident has prompted evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people, many of whom are staying in shelters. The orders remain in place as of Monday morning, officials said.
Division Chief Craig Covey, the Orange County fire incident commander, said the temperature inside the tank has dropped from 100 degrees Fahrenheit to 93 degrees.
The crack was identified Saturday night during a visual inspection of the 7,000-gallon tank at the GKN Aerospace facility in Garden Grove.
Garden Grove is in northern Orange County, about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles and 4 miles from Disneyland in Anaheim.
The threat of an explosion led to evacuation orders affecting 50,000 people.
McGovern said Sunday that air monitoring has shown the possible fissure has not led to the release of toxic air.
A White House official said Monday that the Trump administration \u201cis engaged and monitoring the situation.\u201d
The Environmental Protection Agency has enabled air monitoring at 20 locations around the area, the official said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has deployed a local officer to coordinate with officials, sent a team to the State Emergency Operation Center and activated its Interagency Modeling and Atmospheric Assessment Center, which models airborne hazards.
Earlier Monday, authorities said that one of three tanks at the facility had been neutralized by introducing a compound into it, but that the other two \u2014 including the affected tank \u2014 have not.
The authority quashed reports that there may be more than one crack on the tank. \u201cThere is also peeling of the weather stripping on the exterior, but this is not an additional crack. There is currently no active leak, and continuous live atmospheric monitoring confirms there are no chemicals leaking,\u201d it said in a post on X.
A spokesperson for GKN Aerospace said Sunday<\/a> that the company was monitoring the condition of the \u201caffected material\u201d and that crews were working \u201caround the clock to mitigate the risk of a leak.\u201d
Covey told NBC News that an explosion could set off a blast in a nearby 15,000-gallon tank and a 4,500-gallon tank that also holds methyl methacrylate.
Officials said the blast radius, which stretches up to half a mile, would cause severe structural damage and most likely disperse toxic vapors into the air.
Officials also expressed concern that the tank could rupture and release toxic material into waterways.
\u201cWe\u2019re talking about possibly one of the worst chemical incidents in California history,\u201d Covey said.
Shelters in Orange County have filled up with frantic locals as 50,000 people are under evacuation orders.
Lydia Green, who lives in Anaheim, about a mile from the facility, is one of them.
\u201cI\u2019m feeling nervous, scared, devastated,\u201d Green told NBC News on Sunday at a shelter at John F. Kennedy High School in nearby La Palma. \u201cI\u2019ve been without my medication, my basic needs \u2014 food, hotels, we haven\u2019t had a hotel. It\u2019s been very hard.\u201d
She and her partner, Eugene Smith, had been sleeping in their car. Smith described the ordeal as \u201clike living in a nightmare,\u201d and said he feared a devastating explosion and its aftermath.
\u201cBlowing up and then contaminating everything. Everything. That\u2019s where we live at. That\u2019s our home,\u201d he said.
Jaden Gebelein was also at the shelter and said he was nervous, as he lives on the border of the evacuation zone.
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of anger. … I feel like why there are these facilities right next to a bunch of houses? And it makes me upset, too,\u201d he said. \u201cYou hope that it gets managed well and then the worst-case scenario doesn\u2019t happen, because those are people\u2019s houses, and it\u2019s probably going to affect a lot bigger of a radius than they let on.\u201d
The American Red Cross<\/a> said Sunday that six shelters scattered around the region for evacuees are nearing or at capacity for overnight stays.
Concerns about the 7,000-gallon tank first arose Thursday when Orange County fire officials reported a \u201cvapor release\u201d at the aerospace facility. Further investigation found that the tank\u2019s temperatures were rising.
Firefighters used sprinklers and hose lines to cool the tank. McGovern said that during a team operation Saturday night, crews saw that the pin on the temperature gauge was reading 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest level it shows, which indicated that actual temperatures in the tank could be higher.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Orange County on Saturday. President Donald Trump signed a federal emergency declaration, which allows for greater aid, Newsom and U.S. Rep Derek Tran, D-Calif., said Monday.
\u201cThis new federal assistance will further bolster our resources to help resolve this situation,\u201d Newsom said in a statement.
The Orange County Fire Authority said Monday afternoon that since the risk had been mitigated officials would re-evaluate the evacuation zones, but told everyone to say out of the evacuation area until an official announcement of a change.
Steve Patterson and Shanshan Dong reported from La Palma, Marlene Lenthang from Los Angeles and Aria Bendix from New York.<\/em>
Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Steve Patterson is a correspondent in Los Angeles for NBC News.
producer for NBC News in Los Angeles.
Aria Bendix is the breaking health reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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