west, tx

watching the news [9:00pm} mst time.. wow, another tragic explosion, a fertilzer plant explodes in west, tx..70 comfirmed dead...

Guys, West,Tx,, This is a Chzeck Farming community some 8 to 10 miles North of Waco Tx. Along I-35.
It is a Mess to say the least. Mayor was just on a local TV station , He said there was a fire Already at the Fertilizer Plant, and a few Vol. Fire Fighter were all ready there when the Explosion occurred. I speculate the Guys are gone, Judging by the size of the Explosion that was caught on Video.
A local Nursing Home is in shambles!!! it was just across the RR tracks from the Fertilizer Plant. There will be Dead there to.
Prevailing wind today has been out of the SxSWxSE.
Fellow YTer Cen-Tex Ernie lives a scant 7 miles SE of Town. Spoke to him a little while ago, all is well at his place.
Prayers are needed all the folks there!
Later,
John A.

Bought many a bag of seed at West Fertilizer! I live about 7 miles from there but we were in Waco at the time of the disaster.

News is talking about worries of a second fertilizer "tank" exploding. I'll bet their main anhydrous tanks are damaged and leaking. Whole town has been evacuated.

All family members accounted for so far.

Been watching it all night.

Something like this gets to me more than the Boston deal, or the school shooting. I don't know why, but to me this is the bigger deal, gets to me more.

The news media does not know there are different types of fertilizer, it will be interesting to see what exactly blew up. I put no faith in the exact words of the media or even law enforcement, they just don't know the products they are talking about.

They are not confirming any number of deaths, but there are some, probably many.

They were evacuating buildings for the 50 minutes between the fire breaking out and the big blast, hopefully many got away before it went.

Prayers to all, ESP the fire fighters, that can't have a good outcome.....

Paul

It's 2:45 AM and I just left the scene after working with law enforment officers from around the regions (along with many different firefighters and EMS). Have to be back at 0600 to relieve those who worked all night.

Truley a tragic scene and many lives with be devastated by death, injury or destruction. Please PRAY for those affected.

The city of West and its citizens have along road ahead to heal. The damage is unimagiable. I would have hated to have been iin it. There are deceased firefighters and law enforcement who were killed trying to fight the fire. Many more citizens were killed or seriouly injured as well.

As the father of a firefighter my prayers go out to all in the area, especially the firefighters, rescue personel.

Just looked at Google maps. Hard to believe that West Middle School was located that close to the fertilizer plant.

One correction to the story. The plant wasn't in west texas. It's in central texas about an hour south of Dallas.

The plant is located in the town of West, TX about 20 miles outside of Waco. 5 confirmed dead, 5-15 missing, more than 175 have bee injured. Firefighters were at the plant battling the fire when the plant exploded.
Our prayers are with them.

The map and all the TV coverage is indicating the plant WAS in West, Texas.

John T

This will probably change zoning laws across the country and cost a lot for compliance.

West IS about an hour south of Dallas in central TX. It's on I 35 on the way to Austin. It's not IN W. TX.. The name of the town is West, TX.. Czech culture is very strong there and you can stop by on your road trip and pick up some genuine old home cooking.

Mark

A. N. is bad stuff. Gotta be careful with it. Reminds me of back in 1947 I think was the year, a ship loading the stuff in Texas City, TX. (between Houston and Galveston) blew up and almost wiped out the town.

I was playing outside that Saturday morning and remember the boom and I was over 35 miles away. Next day Sunday's news had the carnage all over the front page. I remember crawling up in bed with my dad to look at the pictures of what was left.

As the story goes, and I wonder how somebody figured this out, was that they were in the hold loading nets full of AN and there wasn't any ventilation. Lots of the dust and some guy was smoking. Now you figure that one out! How'd they know that if the ship and half the town just disappeared?

Mark

There is a joke for the ones that know. West Texas is in east Texas. Been through there many times. Good home made food and very nice people.I know a couple that had a store in town. Hope they are ok,if they are still in town. I will be saying a prayer for the town. Hope there are no more deaths. But I think there will be more.

Prayers to you, family friends and all others involved in this tragedy.

My prayers go out to everyone in that area, especially the families of those who were killed. To those who were hurt I hope they heal fast and are fairly compensated in the end. I hope the national news media doesn't crucify the local fire dept like they did ours when we had a large propane explosion that killed two volunteer firemen. Most of us don't realize how long this will affect those who are directly involved, both emotionally and legally. Jim

The name of the town is West. Its located in central Tx an hour or so south of Dallas.

Nice little place. I've been through there several times.

As of 6:00 this morning, they estimate deaths between 5 and 15. Some of the deaths are first responders who were fighting the fire when the explosion occurred. Many are still missing including some first responders.

Tremendous amount of damage. Severe weather is hampering search and rescue efforts.

Surrounding communities are pouring in all kinds of support and assistance.

Prayers are definitely needed.

Hard telling on that. Central Soya soybean plant explosion in Indianapolis was 19 years ago. Central Soya finally settled with the homeowners west and north of the plant for a meager $900,000 collectively in 2003. Most of that area is bare lots. What houses are there are boarded up. Indianapolis would not allow the plant to be rebuilt. It is a storage facility only until they can be loaded on rail cars. Facility holds over 1 million bushels.

Just watched another update on West, TX. The media has been set up in the lobby of the auction barn. On the broadcasts you can hear the cattle complaining.
It's a great place for the media since they're full of it anyway.

The reason that there are so many cattle there is today is sale day. I wonder if they will cancel the sale. I think I"ll drive by since I"m going to donate blood today anyhow.

the ship was called the Grandcamp...my father was working at Union Carbide about a half mile away.he told me blast blew him about 20 feet before he hit the ground.

Here is a factual, non sensationalized explanation of the 1947 ships explosion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster

It so frustrating to watch coverage of the current explosion, as the media and officials don't understand the different types of fertilizers they are talking about.

We are going to end up,with bans on urea and stuff from this, for as badly as the media is messing this up.....

Paul

I understand the nitrogen in pellets at 33 0 0 is what is explosive. What exactly do you mean by A.N.?

The media was comparing it to the Oklahoma City bombing, that destroyed the office building, by comparing the amount of material (11 times as much in the West plant). But its apples to oranges- the Oklahoma City bomb was ammonium nitrate prills with diesel added, and West was anyhdrous ammonia whose tank exploded from the heat of an adjacent fire- totally different products, totally different circumstances.

ammonium nitrate

West actually has a well equipped and well trained VFD. I know some of the guys on the VFD and worked with them when I was on our local VFD.

West Fertilizer has been in the same spot for many decades. The town used to be farther away and gradually moved in that direction. The first street you see that is due south of the plant, "spring street" used to be where the town stopped.
The apartment building they show in the photos is due west of the plant and about 500ft away. Past that is the rest home. One of the photos incorrectly identified the nursing home as the apartment building.

I will probably know some of those who are now missing.

The fertilizer plant was local family owned and operated and most everyone that works there is a little bit older and highly experienced. It's actually two businesses; the fertilizer plant and the grain company. My kin have worked there in the past but presently none employed there.

The building you see burning before the explosion is all wood and about a million years old. If you zoom in on the map photo you can see that the four main NH3 tanks are pretty darn close to the building.

There are very many types of nitrogen fertilizer.

Ammonium nitrate is one type, it is actually gotten to be very rare around my location, but understand it is still used in some places. This is the stuff that, mixed with diesel fuel, is a big explosive. As well, when mixed with water and heat, it can also be an explosive. If this fertilizer company had AN stored there, and if that AN got hot and got wet in the right amounts, or If petroliums products from fuel tanks, shingles, etc got mixed in, it would be the most likely cause of such a big explosion.

AN is the stuff used to make explosive devices, it is fairly safe, but makes a tremendous boom.

The anhydrous ammonia tanks, also known as NH3, can blow up if they are heated and don't vent. Also there are very rare, very hard to create conditions that can cause it to become explosive, but that is very hard to do, and the explosions are not as violent from NH3. This fertilizer is a gas at normal pressures, and aggressively seeks out water. Once it gets its water, it is very stable and not a danger at all. Just basic elements in our air. But the tank of it, being heated by a fire, poses a big danger as the stuff is deadly to breath when it is 'fresh' and still seeking water.

The media and officials are terribly confused as to which product we are talking about. They are using the 2 different product interchangeably.

They are very, very different products.

The media has so butchered their description of this, we don't really know what products were there.

A most likely situation is they had some AN in a pile in the fert building, and it got wet and heated in efforts to put out the building fire. And this is what blew up.

The anhydrous tanks were likely venting from getting hot and causing a short term breathing hazard, and it is possible a tank ruptured from the heat or from the AN explosion, but it would be very unusual for the tank of anhydrous to be the main cause of any explosion. Not impossible, but very unlikely.

All of this is speculation, I can be proven wrong. But this is the best odds of what happened, the mishmash of stuff the media is saying is just terribly wrong and mis informed.

We farmers use a lot more urea fertilizer, which is a third type of nitrogen, and again is little pellets, very stable, not explosive, not very dangerous.

As the media is reporting things, it would appear to the public at large that all fertilizer any farmer used is terribly dangerous, very explosive, and should be banned forever!

And that is sad, as that is farthest from the truth.

Paul

Ammonium Nitrate.

I used to work for a company that manufactured fertilizer equipment and knew some of the workers at this plant. Good folk all of them. Prayes needed.

We were sitting by our pond when we heard the explosion over here in Eureka.

Ya'll say a prayer for the Calvin family. Perry was in EMT class last night and responded to the fire. They haven't reported on him yet.

AN is what we get at the local fertilizer dealer in bulk along with other primary and secondary ingredients. They custom mix it and load it in bulk in a gondola (spreader) they loan to you. The big boys use the liquid but I don't know where they get it. Suppliers have pretty much dried up around here even though a lot of farming still goes on.

Since I retired I use Ammonium Sulfate which I buy in the bag. A little more expensive being bagged, but more convenient for me. I can store it in my shop without worrying about problems. In addition the sulfur has helped my ph and my grass this spring is really showing the improvement.......since we are finally getting some ground moisture. Ha!

Mark