Officials lifted evacuation orders on Monday night for more than half of the 40,000 Southern California residents living near an unstable chemical tank that they had feared would explode.
Emergency personnel said they had averted the worst-case scenario of a major detonation, after struggling over Memorial Day weekend to contain the unstable industrial tank, filled with a toxic substance, in Garden Grove, Calif. But, officials stressed, the risk of a smaller blast or spill remained and they did not rescind the entire evacuation order.
Some 16,000 people who live closest to the site were still displaced as the Orange County Fire Authority’s standoff with the 22-year-old tank neared the end of its fifth day.
“It’s not over yet,” TJ McGovern, the fire authority’s interim chief, said at a news conference. “We still have work to do.”
The crisis, which first emerged on Thursday and eventually led to a presidential emergency declaration on Monday, eased after firefighters reported that a crack had relieved intense pressure on the tank, helping to drop temperatures inside.
“The trajectory is headed in the right direction for the first time since Thursday,” said Thomas J. Umberg, a state senator who represents the area that has been evacuated.
“The challenge now is that people want to get back in their homes,” he said, adding, “and they can’t go back until it’s safe.”
Officials celebrated their progress on Monday evening but said they did not know when the remaining residents would be able to go home.
Erika Ocana, whose house is among the closest to the plant and is still under evacuation orders, does not know when her street will be safe again — and officials’ muddled communications haven’t helped, she said.
“Everything they’re posting and saying, they’re not really clear about it,” Ms. Ocana said. “Is it going to explode or not? When are we going to know? Are we going to be safe? They’re confusing everybody.”
On Monday afternoon, she decided she couldn’t wait for answers. Ms. Ocana, her four children and her mother had evacuated days earlier in a rush, without knowing how long they’d be gone. And her mother, a diabetic, was running low on insulin.
Ms. Ocana and her 16-year-old son grabbed masks and drove to their cordoned-off block. A sheriff’s deputy allowed them through, she said, but he warned them, “If anything happens, you’re on your own.”
The streets looked “like a ghost town,” Ms. Ocana said, and their home smelled “like a plasticky rotten egg.” They collected the medicine and hurried out.
Ms. Ocana’s family was among the thousands scattered across the region during a busy holiday weekend, when accommodations in the area, near Disneyland, were already pricey.
Maricela Bernal, who lives with her family just down the street from the tank, is not sure how much longer they can afford their hotel room. Ms. Bernal is nervous about going to a county-run shelter, she said, because she does not want to risk her 3-month-old daughter getting sick in such close and crowded quarters.
She said officials were not communicating clearly. “Are things getting better, or are they not?” she asked.
The bulging tank upended a quinceañera on Saturday for Ms. Bernal’s older daughter, Crystal Bolanos.
The festivities, held just outside the original evacuation zone, went on as planned, but many guests canceled as they also navigated the evacuation.
“It was stressful and overwhelming,” Crystal said.
Authorities have sought to assure returning residents that their homes are no longer dangerous.
“When you go home, you can feel safe,” Regina Chinsio-Kwong, a county health officer, said at the briefing. “There was no contamination, there were no fumes, there were no vapors that came from this incident.”
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, said on Monday that the Trump administration’s emergency declaration would help displaced people and shuttered businesses.
Firefighters first responded on Thursday to the industrial site, belonging to GKN Aerospace, after learning that a tank containing about 7,000 gallons of the chemical methyl methacrylate had become pressurized and releasing gas while it overheated.
Officials described hearing about two terrifying outcomes: There would either be a massive spill, they said, or what is known as a “BLEVE,” shorthand for a “boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion.”
“It started with us being advised there were no options and nothing we could do,” Mr. McGovern, the interim fire chief said.
On Friday, after the tank’s temperature increased and its casing bulged, an ominous sign, the local authorities issued evacuation orders.
But on Sunday, they caught a break — or, more precisely, a crack. A small fracture had emerged in the tank, relieving some internal pressure. The temperature inside slowly dropped, turning most of the dangerous liquid into a more stable gel.
“That was our huge moment,” Craig Covey, an incident commander with the fire authority. said on Monday.
He said firefighters would continue to monitor the tank’s internal temperature. If it cools further and remaining risks wane, more evacuation orders will be lifted.
As the most immediate danger seemed to subside, calls for accountability mounted. Local and state officials pledged to investigate safety protocols at the plant.
Todd Spitzer, the Orange County district attorney, said in an interview on Monday that he had started a criminal investigation into GKN, which is based in Britain and produces parts for military and civilian aircraft.
“Their cooling system failed, and they don’t have any backup?” he said.
He said he had also begun a criminal investigation into whether hotels were illegally gouging people who had been forced to evacuate from their homes. He acknowledged, though, that during a holiday weekend, prices might have risen anyway.
“We’re going to look at it,” he said. “People are exploiting this crisis.”
Reis Thebault is a Phoenix-based reporter for The Times, covering the American Southwest.
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