Potential crack found on Garden Grove chemical tank, reducing explosion risk
Key takeaways
- If they are right, it would make a catastrophic explosion or an uncontrollable leak less likely.
- “With this new information, it could change our trajectory and our strategy to this event,” McGovern said. “This was a step in a right direction, and there’s going to be a lot more coming shortly.”
- Enzo Soriano, 7, left, Vitto Soriano, 11, center, and Santiago Soriano, 16, right, look at their phones while camping outside the Freedom Hall shelter on Sunday in Garden Grove.
Emergency workers spray water on large storage tanks at GKN Aerospace facility in Garden Grove on Sunday. (Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times) By Deborah Netburn, Rong-Gong Lin II and Summer Lin May 24, 2026 3:56 PM PT 1 9 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X Linked In Threads Reddit Whats App Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.
With evacuation shelters reaching capacity as more than 40,000 people were asked to leave their homes, officials laboring to prevent an explosion at a crippled chemical tank in Garden Grove reported tentative progress Sunday in ending the crisis.
TJ McGovern, interim fire chief for the Orange County Fire Authority, said firefighters had discovered what appeared to be a potential crack on the tank’s surface that could be alleviating some of the pressure resulting from the chemical reaction inside.