16,000 California residents remain under evacuation order due to chemical leak

Los Angeles.- At least 16,000 residents near a plant in Southern California remain evacuated due to a leak of toxic chemicals, which forced an emergency declaration since last week. The incident affected about 50,000 residents who were placed under evacuation orders due to the chemical leak in the tank of the aerospace company GKN, in the city of Garden Grove, outside Los Angeles, which occurred last Thursday. Authorities had announced this Monday that they defused the threat of explosion of a tank loaded with 7,000 gallons (26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate, a volatile and flammable liquid used in the manufacture of plastics. After a race against time, the Orange County Fire Authority announced that the possibility of an explosion “is no longer on the table“. According to the authorities, stabilizing the tank proved to be extremely difficult because the chemical product generates its own uncontrollable heat.

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Despite the good news, the evacuation remains in place for residents near the plant. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced that it is investigating the incident and a group of residents sued the company for negligence. The first investigations point to that the incident was caused by a failure in the tank’s cooling system, according to information cited by the Los Angeles Times. No injuries have been reported from the incident.