The Brief

All evacuations will be lifted for Orange County residents near a Garden Grove tank holding toxic chemicals, according to an announcement from the city's police chief at a community meeting Tuesday evening. About 16,000 people had remained displaced Tuesday, following earlier evacuations affecting nearly 50,000 people.

"I'm happy to report that we are going to be lifting the evacuation in its entirety immediately," said Garden Grove Police Chief Amir El-Farra. He said alerts would be sent via official channels.

"Everyone can return to their homes," El-Farra said.

Officials reported Monday morning that an overnight operation was successful in finding a crack in the tank that had reduced pressure and lowered temperatures inside which took the threat of an explosion "off the table."

Still, the backlash to the scare has only just begun. At least seven lawsuits have already been filed against GKN Aerospace, representing about 70 plaintiffs, according to the Orange County Register.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer also said his office had launched an investigation into the incident.

Where things stand now

Authorities said that as of Tuesday they had neutralized chemicals in two neighboring tanks, further reducing the risk of a catastrophic chemical explosion. By Tuesday afternoon, authorities turned off the deluge of water on the compromised tank, and temperatures have remained stable, at 91 degrees, since. Authorities will now monitor the tank continuously, and are looking for temperatures to continue to drop.

"With that being checked off and the two tanks being stabilized, we felt very confident that, one, we have no explosion risk, two, there is no fire risk, and three, there is no risk of any leaks or vapors being released into the air," Fire Captain Brian Yau, a spokesperson for Orange County Fire Authority, told LAist.

Officials added that water and air monitors have not detected any exceedances of pollutants around the site.

Evacuation information

The evacuation zone that included nearly 50,000 residents was reduced Monday evening.

The borders included Orangewood Avenue to the north, Dale Street to the east, Knott Street to the west and Garden Grove Boulevard to the south, according to Garden Grove police.

All off and on ramps of the 22 Freeway also reopened.

Dozens of people spoke at a community meeting about the chemical tank in Garden Grove on Tuesday night.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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Evacuation centers

The American Red Cross had seven open shelters providing food, health services, mental health support and a place to stay day or night, according to spokesperson Brianna Kelly.

“Everyone is welcome at Red Cross shelters,” Kelly told LAist in an email, “and anyone affected by a disaster or emergency can always stop by a shelter to access Red Cross services, whether or not they are staying overnight at the shelter.”

Pets are also welcome, Kelly said, and volunteers will be available to meet one-on-one with people in the shelters to help them transition back to their homes as evacuation orders are lifted.

These were the shelter locations:

• Los Amigos High School, 16566 Newhope St., Fountain Valley
• Golden West College, 15744 Goldenwest St., Huntington Beach
• Los Amigos High School, 16566 Newhope St., Fountain Valley
• Savanna High School, 301 N. Gilbert St., Anaheim
• Freedom Hall, 16801 Euclid St., Fountain Valley
• Ocean View High School, 17071 Gothard St., Huntington Beach
• John F. Kennedy High School, 8281 Walker St., La Palma

More than 1,400 residents have gotten support at the shelters over the course of the disaster, Kelly said, with the assistance of 200 Red Cross responders.

Kevin Nguyen is a Westminster resident who was staying at the Los Amigos High School shelter when he spoke to LAist on Monday.

“I just thought that we were going to have a place to stay and that was good enough for me,” he said, “but they really provided us with food and all that. It was over the top and I really appreciate that.”

Nguyen said he had been at the shelter for three days, and appreciated the chance to connect with his community despite the circumstances. He said he met new friends and was able to help put beds together and translate for Vietnamese-speaking residents.

Schools

Some Orange County schools reopened Tuesday in response to the revised evacuation boundaries, including nine Garden Grove Unified campuses.

For updates:

• Garden Grove Unified School District
• Orange County Department of Education

Closures

• The O.C. registrar of voters closed one early voting location at the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center, as well as three ballot drop box locations in Garden Grove, Westminster and Stanton.

How we got here

On Thursday afternoon, vapor began seeping from storage tanks holding an industrial chemical used in plastics manufacturing at GKN Aerospace's facility, which is about a mile north of the 22 Freeway in Garden Grove.

Evacuation orders were issued but later lifted after officials thought the situation was under control. But on Friday morning, evacuation orders were reissued and expanded because hazmat teams were unable to secure the largest tank, officials said.

Hazmat crews used sensors on the ground to monitor for chemical leaks and drone flights to watch the temperature of the tank’s outside surface. Firefighters also approached the tanks to read gauges that show the internal temperature of the tanks.

Officials said Friday it was almost certain the tank would either explode or crack and spill out toxins into the surrounding area.

Nearly 50,000 residents in Garden Grove and surrounding Orange County cities were ordered to evacuate Friday as the tank’s temperature rose.

Craig Covey, division chief with Orange County Fire Authority, said barriers had been placed around the tank to try to contain the chemical in case of a spill, and to keep it from flowing into storm drains and the ocean.

Covey said aid is coming from across the country as officials try to develop contingency plans and protect nearby neighborhoods and waterways in case the tank fails.

At least nine local and federal agencies have been involved in the response.
 
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday and the Orange County District Attorney's office has launched an investigation into the incident, involving GKN Aerospace.

What's in the tank

Local authorities said the tank contains around 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate, known as MMA, which safety officials say is highly flammable and toxic.

Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, Orange County's chief health officer, said the substance can cause skin and eye irritation and respiratory illness. She said there are few case studies of the effects of exposure to the chemical on humans.

"This is where we really need everybody to heed all of the evacuation orders," she said. "We don’t know the long-term consequences."

About the leak

A specialized team was assembled to access the tank Saturday night and found a crack, McGovern said Sunday.

The leak allowed pressure to bleed off from the tank, according to local authorities, but did not spread toxic vapors into the area.

Chris Myers, a federal on-scene coordinator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, told reporters Monday the agency had been monitoring the air “around the clock” and found no air safety issues.

“There was no contamination,” said Chinsio-Kwong. “There were no fumes. There were no vapors that came from this incident.”

Covey said the OCFA has been testing the millions of gallons of water running off from the tanks from efforts to cool them, and the water has been “100 percent clean” over the entire incident.

The company's response

The tanks are owned by GKN Aerospace, which manufactures windows and canopies for military and civilian aircraft at the facility. In a statement, a spokesperson for the company wrote:

How to stay updated

• Orange County Fire Authority on X or Facebook
• County public information hotline: (714) 628-7085 
• City of Garden Grove, emergency line: (714) 741-5444
• OCFA Medical Information Hotline: (714) 538-2501

LAist reporter Destiny Torres contributed reporting.

State and local lawmakers are joining immigrant rights groups in urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would bar California law enforcement from moonlighting for ICE.

Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, who represents Angelenos from South L.A. to Mar Vista, introduced AB 1537 in January. If implemented, the bill would ban California police, sheriffs and other law enforcement from taking on second jobs that involve “arresting, detaining, transporting, or deporting” people.

The bill has made its way through the state legislature and is now on the governor’s desk. Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto it.

At a press conference outside L.A. City Hall on Wednesday, José Madera, who directs the Pasadena Job Center, pointed to multiple deaths involving federal immigration agents in recent months — from Minneapolis to Houston — and to a recent shooting in Austin. “We don't need our local police to be part of that violence,” he said.

“ICE is a lawless, rogue agency that is terrorizing our communities, separating our families and kidnapping our neighbors,” said Bruno Huizar, supervising policy manager at the California Immigrant Policy Center. “Governor Newsom must sign AB 1537 into law to protect Californians.”

L.A. City councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, whose own parents were undocumented, said it pained him to see immigrant parents go to work and to church in fear of being separated from their children.

“If you’re a public servant, you should be serving the public — not helping ICE tear families apart,” he added in a follow-up email statement.

The bill, dubbed “No side jobs for ICE” by its proponents, would also require officers to report secondary employment offers relating to immigration to their employers.

“If a law enforcement agent gets a conditional offer from an immigration enforcement agency, that will be part of their employment records. And that will be subject to a public records act request,” said Shiu-Ming Cheer, a licensed attorney at the California Immigration Policy Center. “This is aimed at bringing transparency, so that we know how many officers are actually getting offers to work as an ICE agent or a Border Patrol agent.”

The Peace Officers Research Association of California, which represents officers across the state, has spoken out against the bill, arguing that “policies like this don’t improve public safety.” The Los Angeles Police Protective League did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

The bill is part of a growing effort to bar local law enforcement from engaging in the ongoing mass deportation effort. The L.A. City Council approved a motion in March, barring city employees from holding second jobs with federal immigration enforcement agencies.

In Santa Ana, the City Council recently adopted a policy that prohibits employees from obtaining outside work that involves federal immigration enforcement activities.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill aimed at protecting children who are abused.

The law, which went into effect this week, is named “Gabriel’s Law,” after Gabriel Fernandez — an 8-year-old boy in Palmdale who died in 2013 after being tortured and abused by his mother and her boyfriend.

“It devastated the community. Still has,” said State Assemblymember Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale), who worked on legislation related to Gabriel’s case for years. “It hasn't gone away, right? It’s something we still acknowledge.”

Since Fernandez’s death, the Antelope Valley has seen a number of high-profile child deaths at the hands of their parents.

The new law requires social workers to make sure a child gets emergency medical care when needed, and it makes it easier to prosecute social workers who knowingly falsify records.

Officials said there had been warning signs about Fernandez’s abuse, but social workers with the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services failed to follow up on them. The high-profile case prompted internal reforms in the agency.

What happened to Gabriel

Gabriel died in May 2013, after months of abuse from his mother and her boyfriend. He was found with a number of injuries, including a fractured skull, broken ribs and BB pellets lodged in his body. His mother and her boyfriend were both sentenced.

A teacher had reported signs of abuse to the county, but social workers did not remove him from the home. Then they ended the investigation. Prosecutors charged the social workers with child abuse, but the charges were later dismissed.

“He was literally tortured. And there were many, many, many documented events, and there are many encounters that he had with people that lacked follow-up,” Lackey said.

What does the law change?

Before this week, the law said that social workers may authorize care if a child needs immediate emergency care, but did not require it. Gabriel’s law requires a social worker to secure medical care for a child.

“ They call for an ambulance or escort the child to an emergency room— make sure a physician has the opportunity to provide some level of remedy and documentation of the injury,” Lackey said.

It also clarifies the law so that social workers who are guilty of falsifying or destroying public records can be imprisoned or fined.

Why did the law take so long to change?

Lackey’s previous legislative efforts related to Fernandez’s case failed over the years. He introduced at least five different pieces of legislation that failed to advance.

“I'm not even saying that I blame the pushback and the concern, because if you're too aggressive, there's a tendency to accuse people of wrongdoing when they are not guilty of wrongdoing, so we wanted to make sure that the balance was reasonable,” he said.

Lackey terms out this year. “We're trying to do something as a community to not only pay tribute to [Gabriel], but to prevent it from reoccurring,” he said.

The Los Angeles Fire Department has completed its investigation into the cause of the Lineage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights but was unable to determine what caused it. 

In a press release, LAFD said the June 17 fire was caused by an “electrical event” that occurred on the roof of the building, “adjacent to a section of solar panels.” Despite a “comprehensive investigation,” the department could not determine what caused the electrical event.

“The Department’s thoughts remain with all those impacted by this deeply tragic incident,” Arson and Fire Investigation Chief Thomas Raymond said in a release.

In response to the inconclusive investigation, District 14 Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said, “LAFD’s finding that the cause remains undetermined does nothing to alleviate what Boyle Heights residents have endured and are still carrying: months of health concerns and disruption, along with unanswered questions about whether this site can safely operate again.”

“The fact that we still cannot explain how this catastrophe began is yet another reason I will continue opposing any permits to rebuild this facility,” Jurado said.

Recently, the LA City Council voted to withhold rebuilding permits for the Lineage warehouse until after the Los Angeles Fire Department completed its investigation. Earlier this month, Lineage Chief Executive Officer Greg Lehmkuhl told Boyle Heights Beat and The LA Local that the company had not decided whether to rebuild, saying, “We’re still focused on holding the right people accountable here and making sure that we’re continuing to support the community.”

The CEO’s comments came after Lineage sued solar power provider Altus Power, Inc. and its contractor, blaming them for the fire. Altus Power and its contractor dispute those claims.

In a statement following the completed investigation, Lineage said, “Today’s report from the Los Angeles Fire Department validates what we have known all along: This was a solar fire.”

The fire and subsequent cleanup of millions of pounds of rotting food caused a flood of issues for residents living in Boyle Heights, East LA and surrounding communities, including an infestation of flies and pests, nausea and headaches, higher utility bills and other health concerns. 

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Boyle Heights Beat senior reporter Alejandra Molina and LA Local reporter Christopher Damien contributed to this report.

The post LAFD closes investigation into Lineage warehouse fire without determining a cause appeared first on LA Local.