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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Pray for Texas

There has been a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in West Texas

http://abcnews.go.com/US/explo…

A fiery explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant in a small town 19 miles north of Waco has injured 200 people and destroyed dozens of homes and businesses, an emergency official said.

Of the 200 people injured near the West, Texas, plant, 40 were injured critically, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Gail Scarborough said.

Reports are there are multiple fatalities


6 comments

  1. From CNN

    (CNN) — A massive blast at a fertilizer plant Wednesday night killed an estimated five to 15 people, wounded more than 160, and damaged 50 to 60 homes in a 5-block area, officials in West, Texas said Thursday.

    The casualty count could spike to 60 or 70, said Dr. George Smith, the city’s emergency management system director.

    “We have two EMS personnel that are dead for sure, and there may be three firefighters that are dead,” Smith said.

    The explosion rocked the West Fertilizer Co. at about 7:50 p.m. (8:50 p.m. ET). It’s being treated as a crime scene until investigators determine whether it was an accident. “Nothing at this point indicates we have had criminal activity, but we are not ruling that out,” said Sgt. William Patrick Swanton of the nearby Waco Police Department.

    Swanton estimated the death toll as high as 15.

  2. anotherdemocrat

    but missing firefighters is always bad, disagreement on whether the retirement home is fully evacuated or not.

    This is the only news in Austin today. My heart weighs 1,000 puonds & is full of sharp glass shards.

  3. The blast decimated a five- to-six block radius around the plant, where two massive tanks held highly pressurized anhydrous ammonia. It wrecked about 50 to 75 homes in the area and a middle school. A 50-unit apartment complex had its walls torn off and its roof peeled back.

    “It’s a lot of devastation. I’ve never seen anything like this,” McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara told Reuters. “It looks like a war zone with all the debris.”

    At daybreak, the fire at the plant and several more at surrounding homes were smoldering. Rescue crews were hoping to find people alive in debris.

    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new

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