Hundreds of Orange County residents gathered in Garden Grove on Tuesday night to demand answers from GKN Aerospace leadership during a special city council meeting regarding the chemical crisis at their facility in May.
The meeting, which was standing room only with two overflow areas full of upset residents, was held after the Garden Grove City Council demanded that a company representative from the aerospace company make an appearance so they could directly listen to community concerns.
"We cannot sleep at night with the GKN monster under our beds," one woman said while speaking at the meeting, which saw many more expressing their anger after more than 50,000 people were forced to evacuate from their homes in six Orange County cities when a tank holding 6,500 gallons methyl methacrylate, a highly flammable, toxic substance, became compromised and at risk of exploding or leaking as the contents continued to self-heat.
The ordeal, which spanned over five days as local first responders worked to mitigate the incident and reduce the risk to residents, still hasn't reached a complete end, as cleanup continues nearly a month after it began.
Some residents held signs that read, "Full transparency on the impacts on our health and environment!" while others held signs that simply said, "Make GKN pay!"
Related:Orange County DA launches probe into toxic chemical leak in California: "We are not getting satisfactory answers"
The meeting comes about a week after GKN officials announced a $3 million donation to the Orange County United Way's OC Community Resilience Fund, to help people affected by the evacuation orders.
"Thank you for the opportunity to come speak with you tonight. I know a lot of people have been wanting to hear from us," said Steve Carlin, the senior vice president at GKN's Garden Grove location.
He was met with a litany of questions from residents, council members and Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein, who repeated further lines of questioning from the community members who didn't get a chance to speak.
"What was inspected? Were there warning signs? Will there be changes to ensure this doesn't happen again?" she asked. "I think one of them that struck home with me is: 'Would you be willing to remove these chemicals from your facility altogether?"
Carlin said that it's still too early in their investigation to answer the final question, but said that work was ongoing to resolve the situation.
Residents who live nearby, and can still see the problem tank, now dismantled and stripped of all weather protection after emergency crews began working to cool the tank, want the company gone altogether.
"I don't think they understand. Their lives were not disrupted. They went home and they were far away and they got to watch it on the news," said Frank Aguirre, who said that his family now leaves their car packed in case they have to leave at a moment's notice again.
When Klopfenstein asked Carlin for a timeline as to when the hazardous material would be removed from their facility, and when compensation would be given to the people who had to find shelter for their families or their pets, he didn't have an answer.
She demanded a resolution soon, as well as a town hall meeting where residents can speak to more company officials.