Frustrations boiled over Saturday as displaced residents and community leaders awaiting the possible explosion of a chemical storage tank in Garden Grove demanded answers from public officials – and consequences for the company behind the potential disaster.
About 50,000 people were affected by mass evacuation orders in Garden Grove and parts of neighboring cities, and some of them posted on social media about suffering financial hits. At least half a dozen law firms pledged to file lawsuits seeking class-action status on behalf of those affected.
U.S. Rep. Derek Tran, whose district includes the evacuated area, called for a “deep investigation” into the situation at GKN Aerospace, a manufacturer of parts for commercial and military aircraft.
“Yesterday, I spoke with the leader of GKN and urged them to take full accountability for the panic and anxiety residents are experiencing across the region,” Tran wrote on X. “I continue to call on FEMA and the EPA to provide immediate federal resources to assist with recovery operations.”
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced its own investigation and set up a hotline for insiders to “assist law enforcement in investigating the origin of the event and identify those responsible.”
In an interview late Saturday, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer called the situation “horrific.”
“It is certainly unreasonable to believe that any responsible defense contractor that makes aircraft windows and uses volatile chemicals in the process would have failures of its cooling system that maintains the safety level of its chemicals,” Spitzer said in an interview. “There will be incredible costs associated with this situation and I’m going to be front and center in making sure people are made whole.”
Tipsters, including any GKN employees, were asked to call the OC DA anonymous tip hotline at 714-347-8714, to email prosecutors at tipster@ocdistrictattorney.gov, or to submit tips directly online.
Evacuated residents waiting to hear when they could return home, or whether the tank would explode, complained about the slow trickle of updates throughout the day on Saturday.
Viri Morales, 43, a behavioral interventionist at Brookhurst Elementary, evacuated her West Garden Grove Home with her daughter, son, granddaughter and two cats Friday afternoon. She lives less than 1.5 miles north from GKN Aerospace, where officials warn of the growing threat of a chemical explosion or leak.
“Had this happened in Laguna or in other places that have higher income brackets, would the response be as slow to get the information out? Or would it even have gotten to this point?” she asked.
Fire officials have called the threat unprecedented in their experience and said they were scrambling to figure out how to head off an explosion or leak and protect people and property. That included reaching out to experts around the country, they said.
But the Orange County Fire Authority’s sporadic video updates largely drew a mix of confusion and outrage, as well as some praise.
“My parents’ house will be gone if this explodes, that’s everything they have,” wrote Ariel Lopez, a Garden Grove resident, on Facebook in response to one of the updates. “So many lawsuits are gonna come in.”
Resident Gina Dorio called one of the updates a “(expletive) joke” in a separate comment.
“After all is said and done, we won’t get any answers and it will be swept under the rug just like the firework incident in LA,” she wrote.
In 2021, bomb technicians with the Los Angeles Police Department packed 42 pounds of confiscated fireworks inside a containment vehicle in South LA, exceeding the maximum capacity of the vehicle’s blast chamber, according to reports. The resulting explosion injured 17 people, displaced 75 residents, damaged nearly 40 vehicles, and left three homes red-tagged.
Though the comments on X were overwhelmingly negative, with those evacuated begging for more information or some type of timeline indicating when their ordeal would be over, others thanked the Orange County Fire Authority’s first responders for trying to mitigate the threat, and praised Incident Commander Craig Covey for his sporadic video updates on social media.
“Thank you Chief Covey !! You are doing an AMAZING job. Please continue to be transparent. Even though it is scary, it is the very best way to handle these things,” wrote Jane Griffin on Facebook. “We know you and OFCA are doing everything possible to protect us, as you always do. Please be safe.”
Newsom declares state of emergency as chemical tank in Garden Grove under threat of exploding