WEST, TEXAS (NEWS1130) – An estimated five to 15 people are dead and 160 hurt after a fertilizer plant explosion.
Police say many of the injuries are from debris like glass, doors and other shrapnel flying from the scene.
Frantic 911 calls came in just near 7 p.m. (Pacific) yesterday.
Six helicopters were called in to help, while many police officers transported victims using their cruisers.
The explosion happened at West Fertilizer in downtown West, a community about 20 miles north of Waco. About half of West was evacuated following the blast.
“It was a like a nuclear bomb went off,” says Mayor Tommy Muska. “[Like a] big old mushroom cloud. There are a lot of people that got hurt. There are a lot of people that will not be here tomorrow.”
According to the United States Geological Survey, the explosion registered as a 2.1-magnitude seismic event. It could be felt more than 40 kilometres away.
There was a fire at the plant before the explosion.
Dozens of buildings were levelled, including about 75 homes and a 50-unit apartment complex. A seniors complex partially collapsed but all 133 people inside were safely evacuated. Flames from the explosion also spread to a nearby elementary school.
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Zak Covar, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, says they’re now monitoring air quality in the area.
“Given the size of the facility and the authorized emissions from the plant, generally those are inspected based on complaints and like I said we haven’t had a complaint since 2006,” says Covar.
Governor Rick Perry has declared one of the nearby county’s a disaster zone.
“There’s going to be some immediate needs with blood they can go to a local blood bank and give blood right here in Austin, Texas they can certainly go and make that contribution,” he explains.The main fire was under control as of 10 p.m. (Pacific), but residents were urged to remain indoors because of the threat of new explosions or leaks of ammonia from the plant’s ruins.
Speaking to reporters a few hours later, around 2 a.m., Sergeant William Patrick Swanton said authorities did not yet know if the fire and the subsequent explosion was an accident or intentionally-set. Officials say this will be treated as a crime scene until they know this was an industrial accident.
Dozens of emergency vehicles amassed at the scene in the hours after the blast, as fires continued to smoulder in the ruins of the plant and in several surrounding buildings. Aerial footage showed injured people being treated on the flood-lit football field that had been turned into a staging area.
The plant was cited by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2006 for failing to obtain or to qualify for a permit. The agency acted after receiving a complaint in June of that year of a strong ammonia smell.
In 2001, an explosion at a chemical and fertilizer plant killed 31 people and injured more than 2,000 in Toulouse, France. The blast occurred in a hangar containing 300 tons of ammonium nitrate, which can be used for both fertilizer and explosives. A 2006 report blamed the blast on negligence.