[RicksGTO]

http://rt.com/usa/texas-fertilizer-plant-explosion-036/

say a prayer for the folks in the town of West tonight, a small Czech community in central Texas, they have been hit hard by this huge explosion about an hour ago and the fires that are following.

[Nathaniel1234]

Horrible

[Alvin]

Local nightly news just talked about the accident.

Didn't know what to believe after reading those WACK website link comments...

[RicksGTO]

the county EMS is saying 60-70 dead at this point, hundreds more injured. I initially heard 5 firemen and 1 policeman that were on the scene were killed in the explosion.

[Bob Hall]

You tube video of the fire and subsequent explosion. You might want to turn your sound down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROrpKx3aIjA

[LeighP]

wow.....

[Alvin]

God Bless them all. Explosion registered 2 point something on Richter scale miles away.

Last report I saw this morning said 5 to 15 dead, four block area of buildings leveled surrounding area, and 160+ injured with 1/2 of town of West evacuated.

Just to the north is Hillsboro TX which often gets hail, wind-shear, and fast moving storm fronts that drop large hail etc. Weather reported this morning that the storm front moving south this AM had weakened over West giving the responders and investigators a break from the most severe effects.

[Txbobcat]

I was going to go to Waco this morning but have cancelled that trip for a few days. Prayers for the victims and their families

[David Jones]

God bless them.
I worked at Hercules Powder Co back in the late 70's, early 80's. We made dynamite, PETN, a product we called slurry and also packed a mixture of ammonium nitrate and diesel they called NCN. Hercules Bessemer made endless tons of ammonium nitrate. I was working at the PETN (blasting cap explosive) when one of the dynamite mix house's shot on Oct 31, 1979. Halloween night. One man was killed and they didn't find everybody else until the next day. Running through the woods blindly, in the dark, will get you fairly well lost.
Scared hell out of me. An explosion is not something easily forgotten.
My building was about 200 yards away from the shot.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...&pg=4329,13842

[RicksGTO]

glad to at least see the number of fatalities reported last night was not accurate.

[Region Warrior]

One of our fire dept trainings(15-20 yrs ago) was to watch a video of what happens when ammonia hydroxide(rocket fuel) plant catches fire and explodes. Lucky that one was in middle of no-where. Same thing happened. Nothing left but a flat piece of ground.
The SOP was not to go in to fight it. Just evac everyone within miles and wait till after it explodes.

[Alvin]

West, TX declared disaster area by Governor Perry at noon-time news conference.

[Region Warrior]

Saw that. It's probly worst then 1st thought

Correction to my 1st post.
Was 26 yrs ago. Wow...been that long...
Ammonium perchlorate(solid rocket fuel).
Do a search for rocket fuel plant explosion Nevada May of 1988. Click on 1st rh vid.
Original vid was 10-15 minutes before the explosion.
Remember it well cause that's same yr i helped start a separate hazmat team w/a new fully equipped truck.
Nasty stuff travels our FD's corridor(I-65 & Rt30).
Plus 2 rail systems.

[MikeNoun]

The devastation is incredible. Look at this photo closely. At the 10 to 11 o'clock position, that used to be an apartment complex. At the 1 o'clock position, homes were blown off their foundation or destroyed by fire. And of course in the center was the fertilizer explosion.

[zeebo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cy0bd-TdmA like the pepcon explosion in nevada about 15 yrs ago..damn.....

[Old Goat 67]

A little info I received from a friend in Texas who is in the fertilizer business also. Very sad.

It is outside of Waco about 15 miles and is an independent dealer.



We have a location 15 miles from there. The guy was old and ran a worn out location. Pretty sloppy! Had been fined in 2006. Stored ammonia nitrate which we have none in the area. Too many problems housing it with Homeland Security.



It was in a very small town of about 2000. What is very bad was there were houses all around and an assisted living home really close. Still don’t know how many killed!



I know a friend’s son brought a load of ammonia nitrate in a tractor trailer to the location late and could not unload it, so left the truck there over night! A truck holds 50,000# of fertilizer. It was on the yard and of course gone now. To give you some perspective, the explosion in Oklahoma City at the federal building had only 1000# of ammonium nitrate! Think what 50,000# would do and I’m sure they had some in bulk storage as well and they had anhydrous ammonia, another problem under pressure!!!!



Anhydrous manufacturing came about during WWII for ammunition and explosives and of course old refrigeration was ammonia and would explode.



I know of one retired Ciba Giegy employee that lived close by the plant and his house is totally gone! He and his wife are fine, but no house!



It will make it tough for everyone in the industry. Our company is very safety conscious, but anything can happen! But we don’t have anhydrous or nitrate at all! The fertilizers we carry are not explosive.



Sad for the loss of life and then the fire department spraying water on it, when they should have tried to contain it was not wise. One mistake after another.



Also remember Galveston. It exploded in the 40’s because of ammonia nitrate! Great fertilizer for pastures and used for mining explosions with diesel, but too dangerous to be around!

[sdbob]

Prayers and thoughts here.