Orange County authorities urge 44,000 residents to evacuate due to toxic chemical leak

Breaking news is in Garden Grove where a chemical tank is at risk of exploding.Good evening and thank you for joining us.I'm Pat Harvey.SkyCal is over the tank right now.Firefighters continuing to spray it with water trying to keep it cool.They've been doing this since yesterday at this time when the leak first began.

40 ,000 people in this area have been forced to evacuate, and that includes parts of Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park, and Westminster.CBS LA's Michelle Gigli begins our team coverage with more on what's leaking and why firefighters are so concerned.Michelle.

And Pat, I just got an update on the numbers.44 ,000 people are now under evacuation orders.One official here at the command post told me that if this tank explodes, it's going to be like a bomb going off.And I've talked to plenty of people today who say that this is a very real possibility if they cannot stop the leak.The other scenario would be a major catastrophic leak of the hazardous materials in this tank.

This is as bad as I've ever seen.This is real.Don't don't mess around.

Emergency responders in Orange County are giving orders to 40 ,000 people in several cities, including Garden Grove, Stanton, Westminster, Cypress, Anaheim and Buena Park to get out to evacuate neighborhoods and businesses, saying there are two possible scenarios.The compromised hazardous materials tank could spring a major leak or the other option that was told to us is that it blows up.

That was what we were handed.A leaking tank or tank that blows up.That's why we extended the evacuation today in an overabundance of caution.This is highly volatile, it's highly toxic and it's highly flammable.

The chemical leak was discovered Thursday at GKN, an aerospace manufacturing facility in Garden Grove.Fire officials say the cooling system failed on a tank containing toxic epoxy used for windscreens on fighter jets.An initial evacuation order was lifted, but officials say on Friday they expanded it to a larger area as the tank continued to heat up and threaten the surrounding community.

I've been in the fire service for 32 years and it is the most significantly dangerous event I've ever been part of.

And when you have limited short -term exposure, meaning maybe you inhaled some of the vapor, it can cause significant irritation in the lungs, the nasal passages, and it can also cause nausea.It can also cause dizziness.

At an afternoon briefing, authorities say that the air quality registered within normal limits.Contractors for the Environmental Protection Agency are monitoring the air.They set up devices in the parking lot of Rancho Alamitos High School that was closed for the day.As experts across the country work with local hazmat teams to try and mitigate the danger, it's a wait -and -see game.

The other concern we have is it's extremely flammable.And in its current state, very reactive and can cause that explosion, which is why we have that hard perimeter in place.

So when can people go back home?Well, I asked that question and very simply, the officials say we do not know.Here's another thing, Pat, that I just found out.There's a strawberry festival, a very, very popular event going on right now in Garden Grove.Tomorrow, there was a parade planned in a 5K.Well, that's now been canceled.

We're live in Los Alamitos.I'm Michelle Gealy.back to you.

Whatever it is that's leaking.

Yeah, Pat, it's this chemical, as Michelle mentioned, that is used to make windscreens for airplanes.It's an epoxy type of chemical that, in small doses and once it is fully used, is not toxic at all, but in the state that it is in right now is very concerning to fire officials, as you just heard there in Michelle's piece.Live pictures now from the helicopter.They've been doing this issue where they've been spraying water on it.That is to keep it cool.Now, I learned from the chemist today that this material has a boiling point that is less than water, and it has properties in it that causes it to heat.

heat itself.That is why obviously the explosion is of a concern, but even if it just leaks out, that is also of concern because since it's got those self heating properties, it can heat up and cause a runaway effect is what it's called.That's why you see them dousing this water on there to keep the area as cool as possible.

In an uncontrolled environment with a leak, you can potentially have a lot in the atmosphere and any.Flash or spark or even temperature can cause what is known as a runaway reaction, where when you begin the polymerization, it's exothermic, meaning that the reaction releases heat.And I think you can start to see the problem there.Heat initiates the reaction, but the reaction releases heat.And so you get this, what we call runaway, where it's uncontrolled.And it can lead to, yes, fires, explosions, where pressure really builds up very quickly.

Yeah, so that's the issue here is to go back out live to the helicopter.Now you can see this, say even if it were to leak out, there is still the chance that it explodes.And as Michelle pointed out, there are tanks next to it that also have combustible materials.So really a tough situation here and unknown exactly when this is all going to happen.You heard Michelle say there's not a lot of options here for firefighters or for the crews that are handling all of this.Hopefully somebody comes up with some kind of solution that will mitigate this issue.

But as of the moment, we're waiting for it to either leak out or not.ITS OWN AND DEAL WITH WHATEVER PROBLEMS THAT ENTAILS OR EXPLODE POTENTIALLY, WHICH IS OF COURSE VERY CONCERNING.

Very daunting.

Yeah.

All right.Thank you, Mike.