CA declares state of emergency as fire crews race to contain toxic chemical leak

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3w2l249j8go

42•borski•1h ago

Comments

foota•29m ago

Is it not possible for them to just... spray it with ice cold water?

fc417fc802•27m ago

They have been doing exactly that for the past 24 hours. However the contents of the tank are polymerizing, that reaction is exothermic, and the tank is quite large.

Jtsummers•25m ago

Read the article. They have been doing that, but that is just slowing things down and buying them time.

Freedom2•10m ago

Please note that comments such as "Read the article." are against the HN guidelines and do not contribute to the high level of discussion typically found on this forum.

fc417fc802•29m ago

I'd be curious how it came to pass that 40k people were living within the blast radius of a plant processing toxic chemicals. Isn't this sort of thing the primary justification for the existence of zoning laws?

Aloha•19m ago

The actual site of the tank is 33.78356416377991, -117.99993897629278 [1] - its in an industrial park, and its not a large scale chemical manufacturing facility.

Its 'light manufacturing' for a company that makes custom formed acrylics for aerospace.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/33°47'00.8%22N+117°59'59.8...

CharlesW•17m ago

That being said: https://www.ocregister.com/2026/05/22/disneyland-and-knotts-...

jyounker•5m ago

Imagine how often this situation lie this would be happening without institutions like OSHA or the EPA.

Stuff like this happens in Texas on a fairly regular basis, but it rarely ever makes national news.

MarkusQ•23m ago

More fire / explosion risk than the "toxic cloud engulfs city" rhetoric people have been spreading.

https://www.fishersci.com/store/msds?partNumber=AC127140100&...

nerdsniper•14m ago

I used to manufacture methylmethacrylate, as well as acrolein (which is often co-produced with MMA). These are among some of the more toxic chemicals currently manufactured in the USA.

Acrylates in general are truly awful. Our guys died with their faces boiling and breathing in their own vomit while also still vomiting. From a relatively brief exposure.

A bigger public risk of MMA is actually the extremely low odor threshold (in the parts per billion). The god-awful smell can make an area temporarily "unlivable" even below any known health thresholds. And it affects very large areas, because of the very low odor threshold.

pfdietz•9m ago

Acrolein is about 300x more toxic than methyl methacrylate in rats. Was this unfortunate victim exposed to acrolein?

nerdsniper•6m ago

I've known people who've died from both, separately, as well as ethyl acrylate and acrylic acid. I've gotten a few bursts in the face of them as well, luckily nothing too awful. I'll repeat that acrylates in general are truly awful chemicals to be exposed to.

pfdietz•16m ago

The LD50 of methyl methacrylate in rates is 7-10 g/kg. In comparison, the LD50 of table salt in rats is 3 g/kg. So it's not a highly toxic chemical.

mmooss•15m ago

They say it will fail for sure, either leak or explode.

I wonder why they can't drain the tank into another facility. Maybe they just lack an appropriate container.

gazook89•11m ago

I believe they are having issues with the valves, from what I’ve read.

But I’m just some guy.

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CA declares state of emergency as fire crews race to contain toxic chemical leak

Comments

It's time to talk about my writerdeck

Don't Roll Your Own

My two-part desk setup (2025)

Polsia raised $30M; source map: fake ARR, dead users, god-mode over your company

On The <dl> (2021)

.NET (OK, C#) finally gets union types

Green card seekers must leave U.S. to apply, Trump administration says

Sales and Dungeons: Thermal printer TTRPG utility

Hengefinder: Finding when the sun aligns with your street

New map reveals lost roads of the Roman Empire

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CA declares state of emergency as fire crews race to contain toxic chemical leak

z386: An Open-Source 80386 Built Around Original Microcode

SpaceX launches Starship v3 rocket

80386 Microcode Disassembled

Byrne's Euclid

The Art of Money Getting

PHP's Oddities

Making Deep Learning Go Brrrr from First Principles (2022)

Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

Italy moves to Airbus A330 tankers

-​-dangerously-skip-reading-code

Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

sp.h: Fixing C by giving it a high quality, ultra portable standard library

Rubish: A Unix shell written in pure Ruby

A self-powered computer in actual credit-card size (~1mm thick)

Highest Random Weight in Elixir

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