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Live Updates From ABC’s blog via Bad Blue Director:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/04/live-updates-west-texas-fertilizer-plant-explosion-injures-more-than-100/#.UW-KbaxCSZk.twitter

1:31 p.m. ET: The National Response Team of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with ATF special agents from the Houston Field Division, has been activated to join the investigation of the West Fertilizer Plant fire.

“This has been a week of loss and tragedy for the nation,” Acting Special Agent in Charge of ATF Houston Field Division Crisanto Perez said today. “ATF is committed to working alongside state and local law enforcement by bringing its expertise to determine the origin and cause of this horrific incident. ATF will provide whatever resources necessary to thoroughly investigate and provide answers.”

1:00 p.m. ET: Speaking at a press conference, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told reporters that the air, as well as the pipelines in the area, are being constantly monitored, and that gas distribution to homes has been disconnected. Gas connections will be double and triple checked before service is restored, Perry said.

“Last night was truly a nightmare scenario for that community,” Perry said. “West is a really small community. And just a few thousand people. Anyone who grew up in a small town like West, they know that this tragedy has most likely hit every family, and has touched practically everyone in that town. I ask all Texans and Americans to join me and [his wife] Anita in keeping them in our prayers.”

11:40 a.m. ET: Speaking to reporters, Waco police spokesman Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said that more than 160 people have been injured, possibly more.

“I’d imagine that’s increased at this point,” he said.

Swanton also clarified that earlier reports of looting in the area were overestimated, and that there was only one instance of a looter.

“I have confirmed at least there was an incident last night when they thought they may have had a looter,” he said. “It was an isolated incident.”

Destruction in the area had varied, Swanton said.

“It ranges from broken windows to complete devastation. There are homes that are no longer homes … walls were ripped off, roofs were peeled back.”

Swanton told reporters that the cool weather in the area has been helpful, but officials want to rescue survivors before rain increases.

“As the hours go by with the temp getting cooler, with rain here, we certainly want to find folks, if they’re in the environment, injured. Numerous search teams are searching as rapidly as they can to save these people,” he said.

Another Site with Live Updates and information:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/18/texas-explosion-fertiliser-plant-live

2.30pm ET
On the scene

More from The Guardian’s Tom Dart, who has been speaking with people in West, Texas throughout the day.

Standing outside The Village Shoppe, broom in hand, Joyce Beaubien said that she is concerned for a friend and former neighbour who works at the plant. “I haven’t been able to get in touch with her,” she said.

“People here are really shocked. The firefighters are all volunteers, they all live here, their families are here, it’s just so devastating to people who’ve lived here all their lives.”

“It’s really devastating for a little town like this where nothing ever happens – except sometimes a person might get a little drunk.”

The retired medical secretary, who now works part-time in the store, said that new housing as the town expanded in the past two decades meant the plant was no longer isolated as it used to be.

“The fertilizer plant was out in the country and they just built around it when I guess they shouldn’t have,” she said.

Norma Talbott arrived at the store with her mother-in-law, Vi, who was in her house only a short walk from the plant when the disaster struck.

Norma said she had driven from Plano, near Dallas, to look after the 83-year-old, who suffered a cut and bruising.

“She has no doors, no windows, no ceiling. We have not been allowed back in and I don’t know when we will be,” Norma said. “Her neighbour got her out... She has the clothes on her back and her wallet.”

2.18pm ET

University of Alabama at Birmingham’s spam-monitoring lab said that spammers are taking advantage of the Texas explosion to infect computers with malware.

Spammers are sending emails with subject lines including: “Fertilizer Plant Explosion Near Waco, Texas” and “CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Fertilizer Plant Explosion Near Waco, Texas.” If someone clicks the link inside the email, malware can infect their computer.

Gary Warner, a cyber researcher at the lab, said in a blog post that the spammers used a similar tactic earlier this week with emails purporting to be about the Boston Marathon explosions.

2.06pm ET
On the scene

More from The Guardian’s Tom Dart, who is reporting from West, Texas.

Broken glass lines the sidewalk on Oak St, West’s main drag, less than two miles from the blast.

Maria Galvan runs a thrift store two doors down from Czech Point Collectibles and Antiques. Her shop’s windows were blown out and are now boarded up.

She arrived for work this morning to discover glass littering the floor and all of the ceiling’s panels on the ground, she said.

“It was all busted in, glass everywhere,” she said. “Very very bad... I’d fixed up my window for Mother’s Day, it’s all messed up.”

Galvan said that she was shopping at a Walmart in a nearby town at the time of the explosion and saw goods tumble off the shelves.

“We thought it was lightning that hit. People were running every which way,” she said.

Sarah Gardner, whose grandparents own an apartment complex near the plant, said that she “thinks everyone got out.”

She said that of 22 units housing families or individuals, up to 20 might have been occupied at the time of the explosion. Between half and 75% of residents were accounted for so far, she added.

The building, however, she fears is “a total loss”, little more now than a frame.

1.01pm ET
On the scene

The Guardian’s Tom Dart is has arrived on the scene and sends this rerport. He says the blocks surrounding the plant remain closed off, with police blocking traffic from passing. Main roads are busy with traffic, media trucks and American Red Cross incident support units mingling with a steady stream of pickup trucks.

Shivering from the cold as he stood outside the family’s restaurant, Nors Sausage and Burger House, Matt Nors reflected on his sister’s lucky escape.

“My sister was really close to it,” he said, adding that she lives within 500 yards of the blast. “I haven’t seen the house but supposedly it’s demolished,” he said.

Nors lives five miles from West. “The first thing that went into my mind was a nuclear bomb,” he said. “I was standing in my garage flipping meat on the grill. The shock wave felt like somebody hit me in the gut.”

Inside the restaurant, his father, Bernie, said that he knew four firefighters who had been killed. “They were fighting the fire when it blew up,” he said.

He lives four miles away, next to a field. “When it blew up you could see the shock wave hit the wheat field, boom,” he said.

Matt Nors said that West is “really close-knit. Real family-oriented. Something like this happens, there’s no shortage of help.”

He said that the potential danger of living so close to the plant was never a consideration in a rural community that depends on agriculture for jobs. “It’s never been a concern. This was never even a thought, an issue,” he said.