Thousands of Southern California residents still could not return home Tuesday as crews worked to keep cooling a damaged tank containing a hazardous chemical at an aerospace plant, despite officials saying the risk of a catastrophic explosion had largely passed.
Officials began ordering residents of Garden Grove near Los Angeles to evacuate their homes on Thursday after the tank overheated. About 16,000 residents out of the 50,000 evacuees were still waiting for the all-clear.
"It's not over yet," TJ McGovern, interim fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, said Monday. "We still have to mitigate a fire and very small explosion concern, and also a spill potential."
