Fertilizer plant explosion injures at least 160 in central Texas; 5 to 15 feared dead

A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in central Texas has  left more than 160 people wounded and killed an estimated five to 15 people, officials said, likely including firefighters who had been battling the blaze at the factory that triggered the explosion.

Images of the gargantuan fireball that devastated the tiny town of West, 20 miles north of Waco, were particularly jarring, coming just two days after a bombing that killed three people and injured scores of others at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Authorities emphasized that the estimate of how many people may have been killed in the blast are preliminary, because rescue crews have yet to access the most damaged areas of the fertilizer plant and the surrounding town.

 “There are homes leveled. There are businesses leveled,” Waco Police Sgt. Patrick Swanton said in a news briefing early Thursday. “There is massive devastation in the downtown West business area.”

West Mayor Tommy Muska said 50 to 60 homes within a five block radius of the factory were heavily damaged. West Rest Haven Nursing Home was being evacuated at the time of the blast because of the facility’s proximity to the fire; its residents have all been brought to a safe location, Muska said.

The neighborhood around the plant has been evacuated, but rescue workers are searching house to house, looking for people who may have been injured, killed or trapped in the debris, Swanton said. The scores of people taken to area hospitals for treatment had injuries ranging from minor to critical, hospital officials said.

Officials said it was too early to say how the fire that triggered the blast began. Swanton said the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would assist in the investigation, along with local law enforcement authorities. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates industrial disasters, said in a news release that it was deploying a “large” team to West, due to arrive Thursday afternoon.

 “Nothing at this point indicates that this was anything other than an accidental fire. But we are not ruling anything out,” said Swanton, a police spokesman. “Until we know that it was an industrial accident, we will investigate it as a crime scene.

Source:the Washington Post

R.S