Explosion in a small Texas town!

[charlief1]

About 7:30 tonight I felt and heard what I thought was a thunder boom. Since it was supposed to rain today I checked the weather and didn't see a thing in the area so I didn't really think about it. Well I'm watching the news right now and found out the small town of West, about 20 miles south, had the fertilizer plant blow up. According to the news it took an area of 4 square blocks out and triage was set up at the local football field. Now the bad part is that I-35 goes right through the town and is under construction so everything is seriously backed up. EMT's are having problems getting people in and out right now and the video feed is showing lots of people trapped and trying to leave.

This is a horrible situation and I hope everyone gets out ok but I'm sure there's some that will pass because of how bad this is. May God help these people. The town is basically being evacuated except for a few people and the plant is still on fire with 1 more tank that hasn't been blown up so it's possible it may blow again.

 

[Red C5]

That's horrible

 

[charlief1]

Right now the estimate is 60 to 70 dead and over 100 injured. This is on the northern end of the town and they're setting up the command center further away from the plant. Lots of communication issues right now and power is out for 11 miles around the town. The 2 big things are that a nursing home and the hospital are very near the plant so they're being evacuated.

 

[ttaowner]

that's absolutely horrible

 

[charlief1]

22.5 tons of material went up and it was even logged as far as Amarillo on the seismograph. The closest to this was the Texas city explosion back in WWII.

 

[Rivical]

God bless and watch over all affected by this tragedy. Thoughts and Prayers for the survivors and the first repsonders and all who've perished.

 

[Pronto]

Just saw some pictures of it on the news. The blast was huge. Condolences to anyone with loved ones involved in that inferno.

 

[Topjimmy]

Thoughts and concerns for all involved in this latest emergency. What a terrible week...

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[bishir]

I looked up the town on google maps. The plant was unreasonably close to a neighborhood, school, and basically nearly everything in this small town. Count the houses in a four block radius and it's truly heartbreaking. If school was in session it would have been been even more unimaginable considering the proximity to the middle school.

 

[Guess]

I had wondered if you heard it Charlie. I feel bad for the volunteer firefighters that had rushed to put it out.

 

[charlief1]

I heard it alright Don, as well as felt it. It shook the house when it happened. The way the town's built I would guess that the plant had been there for quite a while and the town expanded out toward the plant. The closest to this that's ever happened was in Texas City in the 40's. That one was unbelievable because it involved 2 liberty ships in the harbor.

 

[CGASTON]

Hey Charlie, have you seen this article?

http://www.kvoa.com/news/safety-board-chair-atf-blocking-plant-blast-probe/

My question is why would the gov't be blocking the investigation..........

 

[charlief1]

With the current muslim threats national security takes precedent over safety and only 1 group should investigate so things don't get muddied up. The issue is that each counties in the Unites States is supposed to have a council that determines hazardous material in the county and how to deal with accident. The county in question says they have one but the people assigned to it have never met and didn't even know they were assigned to be part of the council. I will point out that it's more about politics than anything else though.