Orange County authorities cut the evacuation zone in the Garden Grove chemical crisis to about 16,000 people on Monday, after fire officials said the threat of a massive chemical explosion had been eliminated. The new zone is bounded by Orangewood Avenue to the north, Dale Street to the east, Knott Street to the west and Garden Grove Boulevard to the south.
Orange County Fire Authority officials said Monday that the BLEVE was off the table, a key shift in a four-day crisis that had forced more than 40,000 people from their homes. Before the reduction, nearly 50,000 people were under evacuation.
The damaged tank, at a Garden Grove aerospace firm, was down to 93 degrees on Monday. Firefighters overnight had detected a potential crack in the tank that could be relieving some of the pressure inside it, and officials had announced an overnight operation on Sunday to confirm that the pressure had been released and the BLEVE threat eliminated.
TJ McGovern described the BLEVE on Sunday as the worst-case catastrophic event the crews had been talking about. By Monday, that fear had eased enough for officials to pull back the evacuation perimeter, but they said evacuation orders remained in place and that work still had to continue to contain the incident. Craig Covey called the update “incredible positive news as we turn the corner of this incident,” while Amir El-Farra urged people to understand that the evacuation was being done for their safety and that officials would keep working so they could return home soon.
The reduced zone is the clearest sign yet that the immediate explosion risk has passed, but it is not the end of the response. Authorities have taken the worst outcome off the table; the harder task now is finishing the containment work without putting anyone back in harm’s way.
