<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Heat and pressure continued to build overnight in an unstable tank of toxic chemicals at a Southern California industrial site, the authorities said on Saturday, meaning that the tank could be inching closer to a rupture or an explosion that could spew toxic materials into a Los Angeles-area suburb.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">It is also possible, officials said, that the increase in temperature is occurring because the liquid inside the tank is solidifying. If so, and if the tank holds, that could make a rupture less likely.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Still, some 40,000 residents of towns surrounding the plant in Garden Grove remain evacuated to shelters outside the potential blast zone.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">In an update posted to social media on Saturday morning, Craig Covey, an incident commander with the Orange County Fire Authority, said that external temperature readings of the tank, taken via drone, had initially given officials hope that efforts to cool and stabilize the tank were successful.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">But the tank’s internal temperature gauge, which the team glimpsed overnight for the first time since Friday morning, showed otherwise. The temperature inside the tank had risen by an average of one degree per hour, to 90 from 77 degrees.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Mr. Covey said the officials were consulting experts around the country to identify solutions. But, for the moment, the authorities still have no clear options to prevent the 7,000-gallon tank from failing — either by rupturing and leaking toxic chemicals, or, in the worst case, exploding.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="InteractiveBlock-3"><section class="interactive-content interactive-size-medium css-1u996gq" data-id="100000010922196" data-source-id="100000010922196" data-testid="inline-interactive" data-uri="nyt://embeddedinteractive/5f1ec4ba-03cf-531c-a6a7-8767601051f2" id="22wea-cal-fire-evac-oc-hazmat"><div class="css-17ih8de interactive-body" data-sourceid="100000010922196" id="embed-id-100000010922196">
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Chemical Tank in Orange County Continues to Overheat, Authorities Say
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