Chemical tank leak in California prompts evacuation of 40,000 people

In Southern California, some 40,000 people were under evacuation orders as authorities were racing to figure out how to prevent the explosion of a storage tank that has been leaking a hazardous chemical used to make plastic parts.

A storage tank holding between 6,000 and 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate overheated and began venting vapours into the air at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, a city in Orange County.

Officials ordered residents in Garden Grove to leave and expanded evacuation orders Friday to some residents of five other Orange County cities - Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster.

This after they failed to stop the leakage overnight on the tank at GKN Aerospace which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft.