Evacuation centers fill up in southern California as efforts continue to cool damaged chemical tank

Evacuation centers remained open in Southern California on Saturday as authorities worked to cool an overheated chemical storage tank and keep it from exploding less than a mile from Disneyland’s two theme parks.

No injuries were reported after the pressurized tank overheated Thursday and began venting vapors in Garden Grove, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. Evacuation orders were issued for 40,000 people, and several shelters were opened by Friday night, including at three high schools.

The main concern was that the tank could fail and crack, releasing the chemical onto the ground, or it could explode, said Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey. The tank is located at GKN Aerospace, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft. The tank holds between 6,000 and 7,000 gallons (22,700 and 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate, used to make plastic parts.

Drones are monitoring the tank's temperature, and by Friday evening, efforts to cool the tank were working, Covey said.

“It is not OK with me just to sit back and watch this thing blow up or fail. That is not acceptable to me," Covey said in an update posted on social media. "Our group is going to do everything they can to come up with a third, a fourth, a fifth option that is not that, that is not failure, and we can get all of you back home as soon as possible. I ask you to continue to be patient.”

That included asking the public not to call 911 for nonemergency issues. especially with suggestions about solving the problem, Covey said

“I know that everybody’s thinking they're going to give us some really good ideas on how to fix that,” he said. "While we really appreciate the intent of that, trust me, I have the best people around working on solutions.”

Initially, residents in Garden Grove were ordered to leave. Evacuation orders were expanded Friday to some residents of five other Orange County cities — Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster.

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. The city is known for its vibrant Vietnamese community, one of the largest of any U.S. city. Local Vietnamese television stations translated updates from officials and urged residents to take the situation seriously.

Covey said crews used sandbags to create containment barriers to prevent the toxic chemical from getting into storm drains or reaching creeks or the nearby ocean in the event of a spill.

If the chemical heats up, it can release a vapor that is harmful to people’s health. It can cause respiratory issues, itching and burning eyes, nausea and headaches, said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, the Orange County health officer.

Crews were initially successful and were able to neutralize one of two damaged tanks, but Covey said they determined Friday morning that the remaining tank was “in the biggest crisis.”

In a statement, GKN Aerospace said it was “fully focused on working with emergency services, specialized hazardous material teams and the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of the local community, our employees and everyone else involved.”

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)

Angie Mallon, an evacuee from an aerospace chemical plant tank leak, exits the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center with her pet pigeon in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Firefighters work at the scene of a chemical tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Evacuees from an aerospace chemical plant tank leak move to another shelter after the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center closed for the night in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — A tent used for treatment of the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo was set on fire for the second time this week, and 18 people suspected of infection escaped, a local hospital director said Saturday.

Unidentified people arrived at the clinic in Mongbwalu, a town at the center of the outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola, on Friday night and set fire to a tent set up by the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases, Dr. Richard Lokudi, director of the Mongbwalu General Reference Hospital, told The Associated Press.

“We strongly condemn this act, as it caused panic among the staff of the Mongbwalu Referral Hospital and also resulted in the escape of 18 suspected cases into the community," he said.

On Thursday, another treatment center in the town of Rwampara was burned down after family members were prohibited from retrieving the body of a local man.

The bodies of those who died of Ebola can be highly contagious and lead to further spread when people prepare them for burial and gather for funerals. The dangerous work of burying suspected victims is being managed wherever possible by authorities, which can be met by protests from families and friends.

A burial for Ebola patients in Rwampara took place on Saturday under tight security as tensions between health workers and the local community ran high, said David Basima, a team leader with the Red Cross overseeing burials.

“Arriving at the (healthcare) structure, we experienced a lot of difficulties, including resistance from young people and the community. So we were forced to alert the authorities so that they could come to our aid, just for safety,” said Basima.

Authorities in northeastern Congo on Friday banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. The World Health Organization said that the outbreak now poses a “very high” risk for Congo — up from a previous categorization of “high” — but that the risk of the disease spreading globally remains low.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday that 82 cases and seven deaths have been confirmed in Congo, but that the outbreak is believed to be “much larger.”

There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, which spread undetected for weeks in Congo’s Ituri province following the first known death while authorities tested for another, more common, Ebola virus and came up negative. There are now 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, though more are expected as surveillance expands.

Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said a response to the outbreak must include building trust with communities.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Saturday that three of its volunteers had died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu. The agency said it believed the three healthcare workers contracted the virus while carrying out dead body management activities on March 27 as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola.

This would significantly push back the timeline of the outbreak from the previous first confirmed death in late April in the town of Bunia, the capital of Ituri.

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McMakin reported from Dakar, Senegal.

A sanitation worker from the Bunia city government sprays chlorine to disinfect the central market, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak, in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Motorcycle taxi riders and their passengers wait at the entrance to the central market while sanitation workers disinfect the area, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Members of the Congo Scouts movement carry an Ebola awareness banner along a street during a public sensitisation campaign amid the Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Motorcycle taxi riders and their passengers wait at the entrance to the central market while sanitation workers disinfect the area, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

A sanitation worker from the Bunia city government sprays chlorine to disinfect the central market, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak, in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Sanitation workers from Bunia city government spray disinfectant in the central market area near a rubbish truck in Ituri province, as they continue efforts to combat the Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)