Posted on 04/17/2013 8:55:27 PM PDT by mnehring
Explosions rocked a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, Wednesday evening as firefighters were battling a fire, causing multiple injuries, authorities said.
Dani Moore, dispatcher with the Texas Department of Pubic Safety, said she did not know how many were injured or the extent of their injuries.
"The fertilizer plant was on fire. Firefighters were on the scene. There was an explosion ... followed by a second explosion,'' she said.
She said there were multiple damages to structures and vehicles. She said she had no information on the cause of the blasts or fire.
WFAA.com reported at least 10 structures were on fire, including a school which is next door to the plant. An emergency triage center was set up at a high school football field.
The TV station said on its website that a shock wave was felt in parts of North Texas.
The Waco Tribune reported injuries to several people including firefighters.
The fertilizer plant is about 20 miles north of Waco and just off Interstate 35.
KWTX.com reported one of the nearby buildings damaged was a nursing home, and state troopers transported some of the injured to hospitals in patrol cars.
It also said the explosion knocked out electrical power to part of the community.
Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, was receiving some of the injured. Answering the phone at the hospital, Karen Jackson said she could provide no information on the number of injured or the extent.
Video Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ROrpKx3aIjA
Sad self-ping.
Of which, my father was the only survivor remaining from the Texas City Heights Fire Dept. He was out of town the morning of the blast in Alvin, Tx. The blast wiped out the dock where the firefighters stood and no one lived.
That breaks my heart for her.
I hope she gets her hearing back.
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So do I. If it is just tinnitus and swelling she probably will, but if it ruptured her eardrums, there is little they can do other than a tissue graft and those have low sucess rate.
FWIW, ruptured eardrums are how I lost my hearing several years ago.
In Pascagoula, MS there is a large fertilizer plant within eyesight of one of the largest Chevron refineries in the country. If one goes, they both go. Scary as hell. It’s all surrounded by residential areas.
This comment not directed at you, bigtigermike, but to all those that are critical of the poor guy that filmed this video, WHICH I MAY ADD, EVERYONE IS STILL WATCHING IT IN SPITE OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES.....
The guy is out driving around with his family. He sees a fire in the distance and videos it with his camera. Let’s give this fella the benefit of the doubt. You don’t see something like that everyday. You can hear him saying “it should collapse soon” so he doesn’t have a clue it is going to explode. I don’t think his intention was to put his child at risk, he was 1/4 miles away. Who would know that was too close? While he is filming, the explosion occurs, after which you hear the little child crying and being scared. It was a major blast, I am sure the concussion from the force was jarring to say the least. It is an important piece of evidence and all the major news sources are running it. SO WHAT?!? Get over your judgemental selves. In this day and age everyone is a reporter, like it or not. And so what if he posted it, if he didn’t, you wouldn’t have anything to complain about.
There, I feel better.
Read my comment to bigtigermike you idiot
ditto...while the results are bad it is like a florida sink hole...sayin howdy one moment and buried the next....that is why faith without works is dead
Check your facts this is NOT the blast. It is from another explosion. Has been retracted all over the internet.
Here are some facts about the weather during and after the blast. The Waco region was in a warm, humid but otherwise dry air mass at the time of the blast, with south to southeast winds at about 25-35 mph. There may have been a higher than average buildup of static electricity near the surface as the air mass was stable and ahead of an active front. At that time, the front was at least 150 miles to the northwest of the site of the blast. Now (0230 CDT) the front is about a hundred miles away and will arrive about 0700h, causing the wind to change rapidly to NNW 25-40 mph. There could be a brief thunderstorm or rain shower with the front.
Just wanted to add this to the discussion because in the usual fog of internet info-overload there are bound to be false conclusions about lightning as a cause. While I think static electricity is a possible factor, there was no active weather anywhere near the scene at the time of the explosion.
They’re saying it was a bomb...”see Breaking news”
Damn!
where? I just saw the dispatch link. Where else are they saying it?
Bookmarked ....
Rats are working on that.
That is a picture of the refinery fire in Big Spring TX.
Thats a different explosion. That was the Alon refinery in Big Spring several years ago.
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