Huge Explosion in West, TX

[Miguel]

West is a city 19 miles north of Waco, TX. Its population is 2,674.

A fertilizer plant blew up.

"The fertilizer plant down here exploded, said Jason Shelton, a clerk at the Czech Best Western Hotel in West. “It was a small fire and then water got sprayed the ammonia nitrate and it exploded just like the Oklahoma City bomb.

“I live about a thousand feet from it and it blew my screen door off and my back windows,” Shelton said. “There’s houses leveled that were right next to it. We've got people injured and possibly dead."

Several buildings were reported to be on fire, including West Middle School, and a dispatcher calling for multiple ambulances said “we do have a lot of injured here.”

A dispatcher said multiple buildings were on fire. Earlier, a dispatcher said people were trapped in a nearby apartment building.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-new...-texas.ece

There are so many injuries right now, DPS troopers are loading patients into their units taking them to hospitals individually.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/22007886/i...z2QmHtGizs

[Haleylvr4evr]

Is this near where you live? The last picture looks so cool with shape of the smoke

[Miguel]

No, it's not where I live. It's between Dallas and Austin.

It has a large Czech community and many people stop there to buy Kolaches. The guy who took the first pic captioned it:

andybartee
Stopped in to get gas on my drive back from Austin to Dallas and a huge blast rocked the entire foundation of this place! A little scary...

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Pilot said it shook his plane:

Carol Alfonso ‏@caa1000 49s

Wow! The WACO TX media tells that the West Fertilizer Plant explosion has blown away like 4 blocks of houses. Developing now.

Initial radio traffic from responders:
https://soundcloud.com/alertpage-1/west-...on-initial

I think this might be the plant before it blew up:
http://ow.ly/i/1UQJ2/original

]Melissa Ludwig ·
My parents live an hour away in Waxahachie and heard the boom. Their house rattled like an earthquake.

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This is how deadly fertilizer can be:

The Texas City disaster was the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history. The incident took place on April 16, 1947, and began with a mid-morning fire on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp which was docked in the Port of Texas City. The fire detonated approximately 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate and the resulting chain reaction of fires and explosions killed at least 581 people, including all but one member of the Texas City fire department.

...Of the dead, 405 were identified and 63 have never been identified. These were placed in a memorial cemetery in the north part of Texas City near Moses Lake. A remaining 113 people were classified as missing, for no identifiable parts were ever found. This figure includes firefighters who were aboard Grandcamp when it exploded. There is some speculation that there may have been hundreds more killed but uncounted, including visiting seamen, non-census laborers and their families, and an untold number of travelers.

...More than 5,000 people were injured, with 1,784 admitted to twenty-one area hospitals. More than 500 homes were destroyed and hundreds damaged, leaving 2,000 homeless. The seaport was destroyed and many businesses were flattened or burned. Over 1,100 vehicles were damaged and 362 freight cars were obliterated—the property damage was estimated at $100 million ($1.03 billion in today's terms)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Txcity...inglot.jpg

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Stephanie ‏@stephylust 51s

Rattled our back door & windows & we're about 70 miles away. Prayers for everyone in West tonight, very devastating.

[hr



^ Just grabbed this from the live feed here: http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Explosi...t_DFWBrand

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Someone caught the actual explosion on tape:

http://www.kwkt.com/news/caught-camera-f...-near-waco

[Haleylvr4evr]

Wow thats scary! Hope everyone is ok

[Miguel]

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[Tusk]

Someone caught the actual explosion on tape:

http://www.kwkt.com/news/caught-camera-f...-near-waco

Fair warning, nothing disgusting, but the boy's reaction at the blast.... you feel the terror in the kid. It's a jarring blast and the camera man is lucky to survive as it appears a piece of flaming debris was flying his direction right before he pulls the camera off the scene

I hope this isn't terrorist (foreign or domestic) related and even moreso, it doesn't give anyone any ideas.....