California's cracked chemical tank

NPR - Approximately 50,000 residents in Garden Grove, Calif., remained under evacuation orders yesterday as emergency response teams worked to manage a potentially explosive situation at the GKN Aerospace manufacturing plant. Late Saturday, firefighters found a potential crack in a tank at the facility. Orange County Fire Division Chief Craig Covey says a crack in the tank could be a good outcome. While not ideal, it would be better if the chemicals leaked out slowly rather than exploding. This tank contains around 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate, a highly toxic and flammable chemical used to make resins and plastics. Emergency responders say the incident started on Thursday when chemicals in a tank at the facility began exceeding safe temperature limits. Authorities evacuated residents to protect them from the risk of a large explosion and the harmful fumes it could produce. Since the fire department cannot predict the direction in which the fumes might move, they had to clear a wide area around the plant.