The days-long threat of a catastrophic chemical explosion in Garden Grove has exposed the pervasive yet often ignored industrial risks hidden amid daily life in Southern California, where aerospace plants and petrochemical facilities are interwoven among homes, schools and parks.
Now, experts say this aging infrastructure is converging with population growth and regulatory rollbacks that are increasing the likelihood that similar incidents will happen again.
The greater Los Angeles area became a global hub for aerospace and defense manufacturing around the start of World War II, with companies here producing military aircraft, electronics, plastics, petroleum products and other specialized materials that helped transform the region into a dense manufacturing zone even as its suburban footprint was expanding…