An emergency situation has been declared in California where a tank full of chemicals appears to be getting volatile and authorities fear an explosion.
Authorities confirmed 40,000 people were evacuated from areas near the industrial scene.
According to a post online by Fox News, crews are monitoring, and are taking action to try to reduce the danger.
At issue was an unexplained rise in temperature of the chemicals in the tank, at 90 degrees Fahrenheit late Saturday.
A warning from Orange County Fire Authority interim chief T.J. McGovern said the tank could fail, and the estimated 6,000 gallons of “very bad chemicals” could spill. Or there could be a “thermal runaway” resulting in an explosion.
What started out as a chemical leak has now escalated into an emergency officials say could end in a massive explosion.
Fire crews in Orange County, California, spent hours trying to stabilize a 34,000-gallon tank containing volatile chemicals before announcing that the tank… pic.twitter.com/mvEEsXNpQF
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 23, 2026
Crews were using a constant deluge of water to try to stabilize the temperature, with the idea with the chemicals would “cure,” or harden, inside the tank.
Already crews had set up dikes to divert a leak given the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the tank into a holding area.
“Letting this thing just fail and blow up is unacceptable to us,” explained Greg Covey, a fire authority incident commander in the county.
The emergency developed late Thursday and early Friday when workers found methyl methacrylate, a flammable plastic epoxy, leaking from a GKN Aerospace tank in Garden Grove.
On Saturday, Covey said crews were “not giving up.”
I’m proclaiming a state of emergency in Orange County as California continues to respond to the hazardous chemical incident in Garden Grove.@Cal_OES has been mobilized for over 24 hours and state agencies are supporting impacted communities to protect public safety, and assist… pic.twitter.com/pOLZWkX0vD
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) May 23, 2026
