Garden Grove – A failing 34,000-gallon tank leaking methyl methacrylate has led to evacuations across six Orange County cities, with major road closures and dozens of school and facility shutdowns as crews work to secure a system that officials say is still in crisis.
Thursday afternoon, workers responding to a hazardous materials call in Garden Grove found what they feared most: a volatile chemical tank actively leaking and, in their words, not yet able to be secured.
The Orange County Fire Authority initially responded to reports of a hazardous materials incident at a business in the 12000 block of Western Avenue at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Officials determined that methyl methacrylate, a volatile liquid used to make plastic, was leaking out of a 34,000-gallon vat.
By Friday morning. the evacuation footprint had widened across six Orange County cities. stretching beyond any single neighborhood and pulling schools and everyday infrastructure into the response. The evacuation perimeter stretches from Ball Road to the north. Trask Avenue to the south. Valley View Street to the west and Dale Avenue to the east. That includes parts of Garden Grove, Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster.
Road closures added to the disruption. Beach Boulevard is closed from Garden Grove Boulevard to Orangewood Avenue.
School buildings and other sites were closed across the affected area. Barker Elementary School. Bryant Elementary School. Carver Elementary School. Enders Elementary School. Garden Park Elementary School. Lawrence Elementary School. Wakeham Elementary School. Patton Elementary School. Bell Intermediate School. Alamitos Intermediate School. Pacifica High School. Rancho Alamitos High School. and Skylark Preschool were shut down. Garden Grove Unified’s maintenance and operations facility and Lampson Bus Yard were also closed.
For evacuees, reception centers were set up in Garden Grove at 13641 Deodara Drive and in Cypress at 5700 Orange Ave.
Fire officials said crews worked overnight hoping to mitigate the leak. Orange County Fire Authority Chief TJ McGovern said crews were trying to address the problem, but whatever progress was made going into Friday morning ultimately was not enough.
Incident Commander Craig Covey described the situation in blunt terms: “We have a tank that is actively in crisis, for lack of a better word,” he said. “The tank that is in the biggest crisis is, in fact, unable to be secured and mitigated.”
Officials were also not certain when evacuation orders would be lifted. Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein said in a statement posted on Facebook on Friday morning that crews had a setback when the valve to one tank became frozen and pumps were affected because of water that was being poured on the tanks to keep them cool.
The sequence is difficult for residents to ignore: the chemical leak was identified Thursday afternoon after firefighters arrived at the scene. evacuation zones were drawn across six cities. and the response continued through the night—yet by Friday morning. the command still described the tank as unable to be secured and mitigated.
Garden Grove chemical leak methyl methacrylate Orange County Fire Authority evacuations schools closed Beach Boulevard closed reception centers