In most of these cases, the town grows close to the plant, not the other way around. These old fertilizer plants have been around for a long time, people move close to where there is work.
If you look at the location of the plant on Google satellite, it was located at the eastern edge of a narrow northern part of the small town of West. Luckily it was not in the middle of the town. There still could be a couple hundred affected. And they have to worry about the wind shift tonight with the fires. Town is south of fires. Wind is shifting in a few hours.
Yea but a nursing home? A high school? What were they doing there?