Posted on 04/17/2013 6:51:57 PM PDT by kristinn
A large explosion rocked the town of West, Texas, 19 miles north of Waco, on Wednesday evening.
A source tells News 8 that a large swath of the small town with a population of 2,800 has been leveled.
According to initial reports, the blast was at the West Fertilizer plant at 1471 Jerry Mashek Drive, about a half-mile east of Interstate 35.
(Excerpt) Read more at wfaa.com ...
OMG....poor woman on WFAA....hubby is firefighter....she’s on the city council. Her roof caved in....explosion killed her pets? This is such a nightmare.
Listen live to this incident @ http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/2663
It started with a fire (actually one earlier in the day as well) and there are multiple buildings and tanks at the plant.
I'm thinking specific incompetence today (in addition to the long-term zoning incompetence).
How long before MSNBC blames the NRA?
Being reported that Four blocks of houses leveled.
I35 is blocked. Will probably be blocked for quite a while.
Salt of the earth...
The saving grace for Jarrell is that the tornado hit during the day, when most of the houses were unoccupied. Sadly this happened at the worst possible time.
AFAIK, there is no “zoning” in Texas.
There was an apartment building between the nursing homes and the plant - video on one of the Dallas news stations showed that the entire second floor of the building was destroyed.
Fortunately the nursing home looks like it was single story so if it “collapsed” people inside have more of a chance.
not for the feint of heart, that!
Intermediate school now on fire....damn, fires everywhere!
The idiot talking head at the news station totally missed what the distraught woman was saying.
She said... her husband was a volunteer fire fighter and was working the fire WHEN IT HAPPENED.
He totally did not clue into the fact her husband was likely dead and she knew it while giving the interview. Man, you would think media personalities would be better at reading people and following a conversation. He should have immediately cut that interview off once they realized just how close to it she was.
Don’t think terrorism.
Apparently the sight had a fire earlier today that was thought to be contained. However, it was very windy here today. Gusts 30-40 mile per hour. Me thinks the aftermath of the original fire flaired back up and went out of control before anyone could respond.
Trying to rescue 2 kids trapped in that apt. bldg.
I do know there is no zoning in Houston. I have no idea if there is in the rest of Texas.
Zoning, is, of course a bit of a dirty word around here - you have people that believe they have the absolute right to do or build anything on property they own.
Of course, the minute someone ELSE does or builds something they don't like anywhere near their property, they turn into massive hypocrites.
This happened in a small town in Texas, msnbc wont touch it unless it involves a minority victim and a white perp.
Here we go....WFAA reporter says he’s at the West Auction Barn....except he called it auction “house”....lol
I am no danger at all..Just turned on TV and heard about this less than an hour ago..I am so sad for those affected..
I am praying with you..
If I heard it I probably thought it was thunder.
Heartbreaking..
Slow down.
We don't know anything yet, except that a whole town has been devastated by this blast. They're still airlifting victims out to nearby hospitals.
There'll be lots more information forthcoming after investigators do a forensic analysis of the scene.
The Apache Powder plant in Arizona was pretty much all by itself south of Wilcox, AZ, for just the reasons you list. It is expensive to get services and utilities if you are isolated however.
This is sounding worse as time goes by. Twitter has estimates of 60-70 dead including six firemen and one policeman. Horrible tragedy.
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