15 killed and 150 injured in Texas fertilizer plant explosion

[gryphon]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/17/us/okl...her/index.html

[Darth Penguin]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/17/us/okl...her/index.html

damaged by storm.....not a blast..

[gryphon]

Yea I know but it was still a chemical plant on fire.

[Natalka]

Gee, absolutely terrible!

[Patty Smyth]

CNN - They are reporting 5-10 dead so far. Not sure if those early estimates were a little high.

[Patty Smyth]

Here is a video of the explosion as it happens. Warning: It's gut wrenching as you hear the little girl pleading with her Dad and saying she can't hear. Shivers I tell ya.

http://video.news.com.au/2380291128/...t-of-explosion


Do you have a link to that incident gryphon?

So that would mean all those building you see before the explosion are now gone.

Why would you build a house that close to a fertilizer plant? How close were they really?

[TaraF]

I wouldn't see why you'd build near a plant but they also could have been there before the plant was built. Or for some odd reason they built there. I updated the thread title to reflect this morning's count from the Falls/Fort Worth news site which says 15 killed and around 150 injured. Still quite horrible.

[Patty Smyth]

CNN According to police so far they are 2 confirmed dead one is most likely the volunteer fire fighter who was on scene and called the plant owner. Very sad.

CNN - It is being treated as an act of arson. (how can they even tell that at this point?)

[Patty Smyth]

I wouldn't see why you'd build near a plant but they also could have been there before the plant was built. Or for some odd reason they built there. I updated the thread title to reflect this morning's count from the Falls/Fort Worth news site which says 15 killed and around 150 injured. Still quite horrible.

Hopefully casualties remain on the very low side. Hard to imagine it will but thankfully the plant was empty.

[i_forget]

I cannot believe that the government would allow there to be a fertilizer plant so close to residential areas.

Anyone with half a brain knows the potential risk of an explosion or fire would cause this sort of damage.

All those people who are injured and dead....sad.

[anisa]

If it was arson, I hope the person responsible wasn't actually planning on causing such a catastrophe.
i don't know if that came out right. arson is bad, i just hope it wasn't part of a bigger plot.

[bigboy]

So sad...

[Darth Penguin]

West plant labelled crime scene

Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday said he is seeking a federal disaster declaration for West, Texas in the wake of the deadly explosion at the fertilizer plant. Speaking from the DPS command post in North Austin, the governor said he has already spoken with President Obama about his request and thanked him for his attention to the disaster in the town north of Waco.
"Last night was truly a nightmare scenario," Perry told reporters.
In West, meanwhile, crews in the neighborhoods surrounding the deadly explosion at the 51-year-old fertilizer plant still expect to find survivors, an official said Thursday.

The death toll from the explosion could be as high as 15 and two of those killed were paramedics, Swonton said.
He told reporters he that officials did not know how many people have been rescued or how many are still missing. Crews were conducting search-and-rescue operations throughout the neighborhoods surrounding the plant. He also said the blast appears to be an industrial accident.
Meanwhile the area around the plant was labeled a crime scene.

[Darth Penguin]

I wouldn't see why you'd build near a plant but they also could have been there before the plant was built. Or for some odd reason they built there. I updated the thread title to reflect this morning's count from the Falls/Fort Worth news site which says 15 killed and around 150 injured. Still quite horrible.

Until we known when which was built is a lot of speculation, though looking at the town map it appears to be a long thin town. I've heard it's around 2 miles long by half a mile wide. according to wiki it's area is 1.6 square miles.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ci..._explosion.svg

[Darth Penguin]

West Fertilizer company told EPA last night's explosion could never happen

A massive blast at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, on Wednesday night injured and killed an untold number of people. According to the plant's own emergency planning report, however, such an explosion was more or less an impossibility.

The Dallas Morning News got its hands on the West Fertilizer Co.'s report, filed with the EPA and local public safety officials assessing the risk of fire or explosion at the plant, which had an estimated 54,000 pounds anhydrous ammonia on site. Given last night's terrible explosion, the company's own worst-case scenario was, in retrospect, astonishingly mild (emphasis mine):

The report, reviewed Wednesday night by The Dallas Morning News, stated 'no' under fire or explosive risks. The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one. The second worst possibility projected was a leak from a broken hose used to transfer the product, again causing no injuries. The plan says the facility did not have any other dangerous chemicals on hand. It says that the plan was on file with the local fire department and that the company had implemented proper safety rules.

head/desk...

eta..bold is by the Slate author, not me in case any-one's confused.