Fire and police officials look at a map of the chemical plant after a leak from a large storage tank at the GKN Aerospace facility in Garden Grove, Calif., Saturday. A failing 34,000-gallon tank of methyl methacrylate overheated, but the danger of explosion is over. Photo by Ted Soqui/EPA
May 26 (UPI) -- Officials have reduced the size of the evacuation order in southern California, as the risk of a tank full of chemicals exploding has ended.
About 16,000 people were still under evacuation orders, effective Monday at 6 p.m. PDT, down from 44,000 initially evacuated, as interim Orange County Fire Chief TJ McGovern said at a press conference that the "most catastrophic and worst-case scenario was mitigated and resolved."
"It's not over yet, and I want to re-emphasize that: It's not over yet. We still have work to do," he said.
Firefighters "still have to mitigate a fire and very small explosion concern, and also a spill potential," McGovern said.
