16,000 Garden Grove Residents Await Return as Chemical Tank Stabilizes at 92 Degrees
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · May 27
16,000 Garden Grove Residents Await Return as Chemical Tank Stabilizes at 92 Degrees
10 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 27
About 16,000 Garden Grove residents were still barred from returning Tuesday even after the damaged tank at GKN Aerospace cooled and appeared to stabilize.
Orange County fire officials said the pressurized container’s internal temperature, previously in the triple digits, had fallen to about 92 degrees after days of continuous water spraying.
The evacuation peaked near 50,000 people over Memorial Day weekend after responders determined the toxic tank had overheated and was at risk of bursting.
Officials had warned the failure could trigger either a major explosion or a hazardous chemical spill, prompting emergency declarations and a large-scale response at the Orange County aerospace plant.
After repeated safety fines, was the GKN chemical crisis a predictable disaster waiting to happen?
A clogged valve turned a chemical tank into a bomb. What was the critical engineering flaw, and could it happen again?
Beyond the mass evacuation, what are the hidden long-term costs for the community's health and environment?