[h=3]By SHELLY BANJO, ANN ZIMMERMAN and MIGUEL BUSTILLO[/h]
Police declared a crime scene at the site of an explosion at a fertilizer factory in the small town of West, Tx. The explosion killed between five and 15 people and left at least 160 injured. Photo: AP
WEST, Texas—A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant here has left between five and 15 people dead, a figure that is expected to rise, said local police officials. More than 150 people have been treated for injuries, according to local hospitals.
The incident began with a fire at the West Fertilizer Co. that began around 6 p.m. Central Time on Wednesday night. Volunteer firefighters in the town of about 2,800 people roughly 80 miles south of Dallas tried to extinguish the fire at the industrial facility.
About two hours later, a thunderous explosion ripped through the plant, registering as a magnitude 2.1 earthquake, according to federal seismologists. It sent a column of smoke hundreds of feet into the air.
GoogleThis aerial view from Google Earth shows the West Fertilizer plant in West, Texas, before the explosion on Oct. 19, 2012.
Waco Police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said early Thursday morning that the death toll is only an estimate as search-and-rescue operations remain under way in the town of West. He said there is no indication the blast was anything other than an industrial accident.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has activated a team to go to the site to determine if the cause of the fire and explosion at the fertilizer plant was "accidental or criminal," spokesman George Semonick said. The team will work with local and state law enforcement officials, he said.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said in a news release that it was deploying a "large investigation team" to the scene of the fire and explosion. State officials have set up air monitoring nearby.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, D.L. Wilson, said the blast heavily damaged 50 to 75 homes, as well as an apartment building with roughly 50 units near the site.
"We have a tremendous number of injuries," Mr. Wilson said in a televised news briefing shortly after midnight. He said he had toured some of the devastated parts of the town and described it as looking "just like Iraq, just like the Murrah building," referring to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, where 168 people died after a truck filled with fertilizer was detonated in a domestic terrorist attack in 1995.
Mr. Wilson added that 133 people were removed from an assisted-living facility near the blast site. More than 100 people were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, according to local television reports.
Mr. Swanton, who was assisting West authorities, told reporters around 2:15 a.m. that several firefighters and at least one law-enforcement officer were unaccounted for. He described a scene of "extreme devastation" near the site of the explosion and added that he expected there would be a rising list of fatalities by morning.
APA plume of smoke rises from a fertilizer plant fire in West, Texas.
Glenn Robinson, chief executive of Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, said staff there have treated about 100 people with largely minor injuries, such as lacerations from flying debris. None of the patients have died. Providence Hospital, another Waco facility, has treated more than 60 patients, he said.
At least two were children being treated as a result of the industrial explosion. The victims include "moms and dads and a lot of other people who lived in the apartment complex" near the explosion, Mr. Robinson said.
David Argueta, vice president of operations at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, said on Thursday morning that staff there have treated 101 people, two of whom are in critical condition. He said Providence Health Center, another Waco hospital, had treated 56 patients. Most of the injured have been treated for burns or lacerations. Staff at the hospitals have been told more patients could be on the way. "There may be people trapped," said Mr. Argueta. Another Hilcrest executive said most of the injured were from an apartment complex near the plant.
Because of continuing fires and the threat of toxic emissions and additional explosions, authorities were struggling to search some of the most heavily damaged areas near the blast site, but they planned to eventually go door-to-door and scour the entire area for survivors.
The initial explosion sent a wave of fire and debris hurtling through the air to two rows of homes nearby. The debris also struck the assisted-living facility and an emergency-services building where 25 emergency-services volunteers were in class, according to one of the trainees present.
The trainee said windows at the nursing home and surrounding homes were blown in, with debris including mattresses and chairs scattered across lawns. The emergency-services class immediately sprang to action, clearing out the people inside the nursing home, according to the trainee, who declined to give his name. He said some of the other volunteers were hurt.
Law-enforcement officials set up a staging area on the town's football fields, but that was later moved because of concerns about another blast.
At the staging area, people were running up to the buildings to look for loved ones and ask about missing firefighters.
REUTERSA column of smoke rises after an explosion at a fertilizer plant north of Waco, Texas.
Numerous police, fire and emergency personnel from surrounding cities came to the area to begin search-and-rescue efforts—so many that authorities publicly asked additional crews not to come because of overcrowding.
Many residents displaced from their homes gathered in the pews at the West Church of Christ, where they traded stories about how they had escaped the explosion and fires, and shared information about the whereabouts of friends, family and neighbors.
"Cellphones don't work so the only way to find out what happened to people is to ask folks around town," said Gary Parma, 50, who came to the church with his wife, Diane.
The Parmas, who own Al's Cleaners in West, were outside on the deck of their home when they saw the house of a neighbor two doors down go up in a cloud of smoke.
Soon after, the windows of their own home caved in. A sheriff came by and told them they had to leave. Still in polka-dot and plaid pajamas, the Parmas grabbed their dog, Boo, and drove to the church.
They said they still don't know whether their neighbors are alive or dead.
"We wanted to save them but we couldn't get them out," Ms. Parma said. "By that time it was too late, a mushroom cloud of smoke enveloped the house and the roof caved in."
With the Boston Marathon still fresh in her mind, Ms. Parma said her first thought was that a bomb had gone off.
"It's sad but it's just the times we live in," she said.
The Parmas said they called 911, but an operator told them there were too many calls coming in to respond immediately to all of them.
Named for its first postmaster, West is known throughout Texas for its historic Czech immigrant population, which originally arrived in the 19th century, and still operates bakeries that make kolaches, a traditional Czech pastry.
The fertilizer plant was formerly known as West Chemical & Fertilizer and was also known as Texas Grain Storage Inc., according to a 2007 federal court filing. It was started by the Plasek family in 1957 as a grain-storage business.
In 1960, Texas Grain Storage added a small fertilizer blend plant for farmers in the area and started selling fertilizer and grain-storage services for other farmers in Texas, the company said in the court filing.
—Alexandra Berzon, Nathan Koppel and Angel Gonzalez contributed to this article.Write to Shelly Banjo at [email protected], Ann Zimmerman at [email protected] and Miguel Bustillo at [email protected]
Police declared a crime scene at the site of an explosion at a fertilizer factory in the small town of West, Tx. The explosion killed between five and 15 people and left at least 160 injured. Photo: AP
WEST, Texas—A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant here has left between five and 15 people dead, a figure that is expected to rise, said local police officials. More than 150 people have been treated for injuries, according to local hospitals.
The incident began with a fire at the West Fertilizer Co. that began around 6 p.m. Central Time on Wednesday night. Volunteer firefighters in the town of about 2,800 people roughly 80 miles south of Dallas tried to extinguish the fire at the industrial facility.
About two hours later, a thunderous explosion ripped through the plant, registering as a magnitude 2.1 earthquake, according to federal seismologists. It sent a column of smoke hundreds of feet into the air.
GoogleThis aerial view from Google Earth shows the West Fertilizer plant in West, Texas, before the explosion on Oct. 19, 2012.
Waco Police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said early Thursday morning that the death toll is only an estimate as search-and-rescue operations remain under way in the town of West. He said there is no indication the blast was anything other than an industrial accident.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has activated a team to go to the site to determine if the cause of the fire and explosion at the fertilizer plant was "accidental or criminal," spokesman George Semonick said. The team will work with local and state law enforcement officials, he said.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said in a news release that it was deploying a "large investigation team" to the scene of the fire and explosion. State officials have set up air monitoring nearby.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, D.L. Wilson, said the blast heavily damaged 50 to 75 homes, as well as an apartment building with roughly 50 units near the site.
"We have a tremendous number of injuries," Mr. Wilson said in a televised news briefing shortly after midnight. He said he had toured some of the devastated parts of the town and described it as looking "just like Iraq, just like the Murrah building," referring to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, where 168 people died after a truck filled with fertilizer was detonated in a domestic terrorist attack in 1995.
Mr. Wilson added that 133 people were removed from an assisted-living facility near the blast site. More than 100 people were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, according to local television reports.
Mr. Swanton, who was assisting West authorities, told reporters around 2:15 a.m. that several firefighters and at least one law-enforcement officer were unaccounted for. He described a scene of "extreme devastation" near the site of the explosion and added that he expected there would be a rising list of fatalities by morning.
APA plume of smoke rises from a fertilizer plant fire in West, Texas.
Glenn Robinson, chief executive of Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, said staff there have treated about 100 people with largely minor injuries, such as lacerations from flying debris. None of the patients have died. Providence Hospital, another Waco facility, has treated more than 60 patients, he said.
At least two were children being treated as a result of the industrial explosion. The victims include "moms and dads and a lot of other people who lived in the apartment complex" near the explosion, Mr. Robinson said.
David Argueta, vice president of operations at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, said on Thursday morning that staff there have treated 101 people, two of whom are in critical condition. He said Providence Health Center, another Waco hospital, had treated 56 patients. Most of the injured have been treated for burns or lacerations. Staff at the hospitals have been told more patients could be on the way. "There may be people trapped," said Mr. Argueta. Another Hilcrest executive said most of the injured were from an apartment complex near the plant.
Because of continuing fires and the threat of toxic emissions and additional explosions, authorities were struggling to search some of the most heavily damaged areas near the blast site, but they planned to eventually go door-to-door and scour the entire area for survivors.
The initial explosion sent a wave of fire and debris hurtling through the air to two rows of homes nearby. The debris also struck the assisted-living facility and an emergency-services building where 25 emergency-services volunteers were in class, according to one of the trainees present.
The trainee said windows at the nursing home and surrounding homes were blown in, with debris including mattresses and chairs scattered across lawns. The emergency-services class immediately sprang to action, clearing out the people inside the nursing home, according to the trainee, who declined to give his name. He said some of the other volunteers were hurt.
Law-enforcement officials set up a staging area on the town's football fields, but that was later moved because of concerns about another blast.
At the staging area, people were running up to the buildings to look for loved ones and ask about missing firefighters.
Numerous police, fire and emergency personnel from surrounding cities came to the area to begin search-and-rescue efforts—so many that authorities publicly asked additional crews not to come because of overcrowding.
Many residents displaced from their homes gathered in the pews at the West Church of Christ, where they traded stories about how they had escaped the explosion and fires, and shared information about the whereabouts of friends, family and neighbors.
"Cellphones don't work so the only way to find out what happened to people is to ask folks around town," said Gary Parma, 50, who came to the church with his wife, Diane.
The Parmas, who own Al's Cleaners in West, were outside on the deck of their home when they saw the house of a neighbor two doors down go up in a cloud of smoke.
Soon after, the windows of their own home caved in. A sheriff came by and told them they had to leave. Still in polka-dot and plaid pajamas, the Parmas grabbed their dog, Boo, and drove to the church.
They said they still don't know whether their neighbors are alive or dead.
"We wanted to save them but we couldn't get them out," Ms. Parma said. "By that time it was too late, a mushroom cloud of smoke enveloped the house and the roof caved in."
With the Boston Marathon still fresh in her mind, Ms. Parma said her first thought was that a bomb had gone off.
"It's sad but it's just the times we live in," she said.
The Parmas said they called 911, but an operator told them there were too many calls coming in to respond immediately to all of them.
Named for its first postmaster, West is known throughout Texas for its historic Czech immigrant population, which originally arrived in the 19th century, and still operates bakeries that make kolaches, a traditional Czech pastry.
The fertilizer plant was formerly known as West Chemical & Fertilizer and was also known as Texas Grain Storage Inc., according to a 2007 federal court filing. It was started by the Plasek family in 1957 as a grain-storage business.
In 1960, Texas Grain Storage added a small fertilizer blend plant for farmers in the area and started selling fertilizer and grain-storage services for other farmers in Texas, the company said in the court filing.
—Alexandra Berzon, Nathan Koppel and Angel Gonzalez contributed to this article.Write to Shelly Banjo at [email protected], Ann Zimmerman at [email protected] and Miguel Bustillo at [email protected]