Orange County firefighters lift evacuation orders after flammable chemical leak

Añadido: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]But we begin tonight with breaking news.

[00:00:02]A hazmat alert in Garden Grove, an industrial chemical leaking for hours.

[00:00:07]>> Desmond Shaw live over the scene in Sky Cal, but first let's get to our Nicole Comstock.

[00:00:14]Yeah, you know, neighbors have been worried about this leak for hours now and tell us there was a distinctly sweet smell in the air that has since dissipated. But if you take a look behind us tonight, you can still see a little bit of steam rising off that facility. We are told that things are under control now and those who were kept out of their streets earlier are making their way back home as evacuations have since been lifted. Take a look at this video from a little bit closer into that facility. The situation started developing out here just before 4:00 this evening on Western Avenue in Garden Grove. A company that makes plastic epoxy for aircraft parts noticed a leak of some sort on a 34,000 gallon tank. Now, that material inside of it, which is called MMA, is apparently flammable and self-heating and that was obviously the cause for concern with neighbors being so close by. Now, the Orange County Fire Authority says the company's sprinklers were engaged right away to start cooling that tank down and the Fire Authority also started spraying it with water. Out of an abundance of caution, they say they told people on those surrounding streets to evacuate.

[00:01:20]Some did, but many stayed home and some were just stuck outside of the roadblocks and weren't able to make it back in after the situation developed.

[00:01:28]We just spoke with a family in that exact same situation. Here they are.

[00:01:35]Our animals are at home and we can't get to them and not knowing how severe the leak is and as it loses its stability, it gets hotter and hotter and then can explode.

[00:01:47]Kind of scary.

[00:01:51]And we're told that liquid has since been cooled down to a safe level and the company will now take over from here, offloading the liquid and working to repair the leak in that tank. Again, all evacuation orders have since been lifted, so people are just finally starting to make their way back home.

[00:02:07]Reporting live in Garden Grove, Nicole Comstock, CBS LA.

[00:02:10]>> Okay, that's good to hear, Nicole. Thank you. Let's get up to our Desmond Shaw in SkyCal. And Dez, is that the chemical that we're seeing coming out of that tank?

[00:02:20]Uh no, Pat and Juan. This is all water from its kind of self-contained sprinkler system that has been keeping this at, you know, a a safe temperature right now. Let me show you some earlier video, too, when they were getting a boost from Orange County Fire when they had their high-pressure hose line on this as well. That was earlier this afternoon when we saw that. But, you see now that we have some personnel that are down here milling about. Uh this tells me that the situation is a lot more safe. They have a forklift here. And it looks like here are the containers down here that they're going to be using to transport that liquid and get it out of that leaking tank. So, very good news here. Hopefully, in the winding down phases of this incident. But, it Western Avenue out here, a fairly major thoroughfare anyway in the Garden Grove area, is still shut down until this is completely wrapped up. Live in SkyCal overhead, I'm Desmond Shaw. Pat and Juan, back to you in the studio. Dez, thank you for that update.