The town probably grew up around the plant. Casualties outside the plant itself would have been avoided if they had prescribed to industry accepted set-backs for the quantity of hazardous materials they were dealing with.
There are certain industries where the potential for tragic events and accidents are quite possible and a fertilizer plant is one of them. I am a small government guy who believes in capitalism, but common sense tells you that allowing a school, nursing home, and residences next to such a plant is a bad risk. The recommended stand-off distance for a truck of fertilizer on fire is further away than that nursing home was on the video.
Prayers for those affected in this tragedy and hopefully other communities will learn from this and take steps to prevent a disaster like this in the future. I understand the politics - it’s jobs and tax dollars in a small town with limited revenue, but hindsight will show how much cheaper it would have been to relocate this plant.
Fertilizer and components of fertilizer in these quantities are extremely dangerous and they should not be anywhere near population centers. Just devastating watching this on television and it makes me sick to my stomach. Unbelievable.
A fertilizer mixing plant adjacent to an agricultural community is their probably because that is where the utilities are, the road networks converge, and a site which can handle commercial trucking. In rural agricultural communities, the towns form to provide commonly needed services and supplies to the agricultural industry in the area.
The rest home and apartments probably sprung up as amenities to the location of their work and requisite logistics, close to family members and their communities.
In most cases a furlong (660ft) to 1200 ft setback from nearly any occupancy in the codes is more than adequate to meet codes.
Multiple systems had to fail for the disaster to occur.
Note, that even with the siding and roofs peeled back, many of the structures are still standing.
They probably have far greater risk from tornadoes than explosions.