GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) — About 40,000 people were under evacuation orders and schools shut down Friday in Southern California after a storage tank continued to leak a hazardous chemical used to make plastic parts that officials said could rupture or explode.
A storage tank holding between 6,000 and 7,000 gallons (22,700 and 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate overheated Thursday and began venting vapors into the air at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, a city in Orange County, the county's fire authority said.
Officials ordered residents in Garden Grove to leave and expanded evacuations orders Friday to some residents of five other Orange County cities — Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster — after being unable to stop the leak overnight on the tank at GKN Aerospace, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft.
No injuries or deaths have been reported, authorities said.
“This is not precautionary. … This thing is going to fail, and we don’t know when,” said Garden Grove Fire Chief Craig Covey during a Friday afternoon press conference. “We’re doing our best to figure out when or how we can prevent it.”
Covey said the tank could fail and crack, releasing the chemical onto the ground, or it could explode.
“We understand that this is frightening,” Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein said at the news conference. “But the evacuation orders are in place for your safety.”
Garden Grove is about 38 miles (61 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles and less than a mile from Disneyland's two theme parks, which were not under evacuation orders Friday. The inland Southern California city is known for its vibrant Vietnamese community, one of the largest of any U.S. city.
Covey said crews have created containment barriers with sandbags in case there is a chemical spill from the tank to prevent the chemical from getting into storm drains or reaching creeks or the nearby ocean.
He said the chemical is highly volatile, toxic and flammable.
“We are setting up these evacuations in preparation for these two options: it fails, or it blows up,” Covey said earlier in a video update posted on social media. “Please follow our requests and orders for evacuations.”
Crews were initially successful and were able neutralize one of two damaged tanks but Covey said they determined Friday morning that the remaining tank was “in the biggest crisis.”
GKN Aerospace said specialized hazardous material teams are assessing the situation.
“There are no reports of injuries at this time and our priority remains the safety of our employees, responders, and the surrounding community,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "We will provide verified updates as soon as more information becomes available.”
Water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP)
Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey speaks during a news conference at the Los Alamitos racetrack in Cypress, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026, about hazmat situation in Garden Grove, Calif. (Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP)
An upgraded car and a “painful” reminder not to lose sight of the Formula 1 fundamentals could be George Russell's path back to the front of the field at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Russell's fourth place at the last race in Miami gave his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli a yawning 20-point lead in the standings after four races. The 19-year-old Italian has won three in a row.
Russell said one reason he lost ground was focusing too much on the standout feature of the 2026 cars, their massive electrical power output, and neglecting the basics.
“Dealing with the tires, dealing with the setup, just fundamentals of racing, has kind of been put on the back-burner because we’re all so focused on energy management,” he said.
“We missed some key things because we were focused elsewhere and that was a good little reminder. As painful as it was, it was a very much-needed weekend because I think it’s going to prove very beneficial.”
Antonelli's lead grew in Miami because McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull brought upgrades that helped them fight for the podium places. Now it's Mercedes' turn to bring upgraded parts for the car that's won all four Grand Prix races in 2026 so far.
On Friday in qualifying for the sprint race Saturday, Russell edged Antonelli for the pole.
“This is an amazing circuit here,” Russell said. "High grip, feels like you’re driving a proper Formula 1 car around here, which is how it should be and I’m glad today it came together.”
Canada offers the chance of a big points swing. It's hosting a sprint race Saturday for the first time, putting another maximum eight points on offer.
The threat of rain in Montreal on Sunday would shake things up, too. After storms predicted for Miami never materialized, the 2026 cars have yet to race in wet weather.
It's early to talk of the title at just the fifth round of the season but a fourth win in a row would put the 19-year-old Antonelli into an exclusive club. Every driver who's won four or more consecutive Grands Prix has been an F1 champion at some point in their career.
History does offer a little encouragement to Russell, though. The one time in F1 history that a driver won four consecutive races in a season but not the title came in 2016 when Lewis Hamilton was beaten by his then-Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.
More recently, Oscar Piastri won three in a row for McLaren last year and still lost to teammate Lando Norris.
It's a busy time to be an F1 engine manufacturer.
The extra engine power agreed for 2027, with electrical power turned down and less need to recharge batteries, got a cautious welcome Thursday from Max Verstappen, the biggest critic of the 2026 cars, who said it was “almost back to normal.”
Meanwhile, the FIA is pushing to return to old-school V8s from 2030, and there's more immediate change coming after this weekend.
Under a new-for-2026 rule, after the Canadian Grand Prix, the FIA will confirm some manufacturers will get extra development time and budget to improve their engines, but only if they're a certain margin behind the best-performing engine, widely agreed to be Mercedes.
The scheme, known as ADUO, is meant to nudge F1 gently toward engine parity over the next few years and avoid what FIA rules guru Nikolas Tombazis last year dubbed “eternal misery” for teams who picked slower engines.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Race fans walk through pit lane during the open house at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix auto race, Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Montreal. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
Ferrari team members work on their cars at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix auto race, Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Montreal. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain speaks speak during the drivers' press conference at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix auto race in Montreal, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)
Mercedes drivers George Russell of Britain, left, and Kimi Antonelli of Italy speak during an interview in the paddocks at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix auto race in Montreal, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)
