Business IS booming in Texas, despite industrial accidents. The fact that this explosion will NOT deter people and businesses from moving to Texas because Texas has LOW regulations! Besides, anyone who builds houses around fertilizer plants is stupid to the boot and does not deserve to blame others.
10 of the 14 people killed were first responders who rushed to the nighttime blaze.
Has it been determined that this was in fact an accident? Or is it more coverup for Islamic terror?
The local people did not build houses around a fertilizer plant - the grain company illegally stored fertilizer near those homes.
Blaming the townspeople - many of whom lost everything, including family members - is pretty repulsive, especially given the heroism and stoicism so many of them displayed.
If anyone deserves opprobrium it is the scum at that business who violated Texas law and put their neighbors in danger because they didn't want to act like responsible adults.
because Texas has LOW regulations!
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For what it’s worth regarding regulations Texas isn’t the only one with regulations involved in this explosion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/20/us-usa-explosion-regulation-idUSBRE93J09N20130420
snip:
Fertilizer plants and depots must report to the DHS when they hold 400 lb (180 kg) or more of the substance. Filings this year with the Texas Department of State Health Services, which weren’t shared with DHS, show the plant had 270 tons of it on hand last year.
A U.S. congressman and several safety experts called into question on Friday whether incomplete disclosure or regulatory gridlock may have contributed to the disaster.
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Apart from the DHS, the West Fertilizer site was subject to a hodgepodge of regulation by the EPA, OSHA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Office of the Texas State Chemist.
But the material is exempt from some mainstays of U.S. chemicals safety programs. For instance, the EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP) requires companies to submit plans describing their handling and storage of certain hazardous chemicals. Ammonium nitrate is not among the chemicals that must be reported.
In its RMP filings, West Fertilizer reported on its storage of anhydrous ammonia and said that it did not expect a fire or explosion to affect the facility, even in a worst-case scenario. And it had not installed safeguards such as blast walls around the plant.
A separate EPA program, known as Tier II, requires reporting of ammonium nitrate and other hazardous chemicals stored above certain quantities. Tier II reports are submitted to local fire departments and emergency planning and response groups to help them plan for and respond to chemical disasters. In Texas, the reports are collected by the Department of State Health Services. Over the last seven years, according to reports West Fertilizer filed, 2012 was the only time the company stored ammonium nitrate at the facility.
It reported having 270 tons on site.
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end snips
What regulation should they have, to ban houses around these plants... that regulation monger would probably say so. You’re right, stupid down to their boots.