WACO (CBSDFW.COM) - A fertilizer plant explosion in the town of West, north of Waco, has killed as many as 70 people and injured hundreds. However, no official numbers have been released.

Meanwhile, the residents of the town of 2,700 are being asked to evacuate due to ammonia fumes after the explosion of West Fertilizer. The plant is located at 1471 Jerry Mashek Drive, just off Interstate-35. School buses and ambulances are being used to evacuate residents from the area.

 Sasori wrote:

WACO (CBSDFW.COM) - A fertilizer plant explosion in the town of West, north of Waco, has killed as many as 70 people and injured hundreds. However, no official numbers have been released.

Meanwhile, the residents of the town of 2,700 are being asked to evacuate due to ammonia fumes after the explosion of West Fertilizer. The plant is located at 1471 Jerry Mashek Drive, just off Interstate-35. School buses and ambulances are being used to evacuate residents from the area.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/04/17/fertilizer-plant-explosion-reported-north-of-waco/

This is not a good week so far.

 Medium of Death wrote:
That explosion is insane. I take it this happened during operational hours at the plant?

Very ominous picture. Almost holywood-esque...

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I sincerely hope this is an industrial accident rather than deliberate terrorism. It would be too much coming after the marathon bombs.

I hope that doesn't sound wrong.

 Ouze wrote:
You guys see this video?

http://www.fark.com/vidplayer/7705334

(wait for it...)

 Frazzled wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I sincerely hope this is an industrial accident rather than deliberate terrorism. It would be too much coming after the marathon bombs.

I hope that doesn't sound wrong.

Fertilizer is a major explosive. I doubt its terrorism. We have plant stuff occurring rather frequently. NPR reported its from a fire that started yesterday. Thats why there are a lot of firefighter casualties as they were on the scene.

Texas has a history with fertilizer going boom. The largest non-nuclear explosion in US city occurred in Texas city when a freighter full of it blew up. It threw an anchor miles away.

 kronk wrote:
Horrendous accident. When something like this happens, it's usually when someone screwed up royally with their safety protocols.

And the poor firefighters and other first responders bore the brunt of this one. Sad indeed.

 kronk wrote:
Horrendous accident. When something like this happens, it's usually when someone screwed up royally with their safety protocols.

And the poor firefighters and other first responders bore the brunt of this one. Sad indeed.

 kronk wrote:
Off Topic: It varies from industry to industry, and company to company. It very well could be a poor safety culture at that plant, or 1 feth head. I certainly don't want to speculate.

I worked in the largest Refinery+Chemical Plant in the US (ExxonMobil in Baytown, TX) for ~6 years. When you compare it to the BP plant in Texas City about 15 miles down the bay, we were All Stars of safety. Part of our safety indoctrination was reviewing the MANY accidents and incidents from Texas City. Ugh, those guys...

West Fertilizer Co. Told the EPA That 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.
The plant, according to WFAA, was fined $2,300 by the EPA in 2006 for failing to have a risk management assessment that met federal standards (that risk assessment is a different report from the one quoted above, according to both sources). West Fertilizer Co. submitted plans to the agency later that year that included, among other things, daily inspections, a barrier to prevent vehicles from colliding with their ammonia tanks, and a water spray system in case of a leak. The plant hadn't been fined since then, according to reports.


This is not, of course, the first time that a company has vastly underestimated the dangers its work poses. In 2009, for example, BP concluded that it was "unlikely" that an accident on the Deepwater Horizon could result in an oil spill that would cause widespread "significant adverse impacts." The following year, of course, a blast on the drilling rig resulted in one of the worst oil spills in history.