Explosion hits fertilizer plant north of Waco, Texas

[Venkman]

Huh.  I find it oddly coincidental that this explosion took place two days before the 20th anniversary of the culmination of the Branch Dividian siege.

This week is really messed up.

On the one hand, nothing surprises me anymore so this wouldn't either.

But on the other hand, there's at least 10 notable things that have happened every day sometime during the 2000 years. Like today is the (calendar adjusted) founding of Rome and Shakepeare was born 

[Mrbloodworth]

This is what deregulation brings.

[Goumindong]

And then there's the hick in the video linked in the original post, who apparently brought his kid to watch the fun fireworks.

What a douche.

He probably had just picked his kid up from school and was spectating at what was assumed to be a safe distance. Something to note though is that, iirc, the reason you can't see much after the blast

[Soln]

I liked Hurley.

[Ghambit]

woops, wrong thread... i'm tired

[Sheepherder]

No-one could know that there was the equivalent of a nuke brewing in that place, certainly not the people that were there fighting the fire.

Umm, no.  They very likely knew exactly what was stored at the plant, because it's the only industry in their town, even ignoring the commonsense notion that a fertilizer plant holds fertilizer.  In addition, fire departments get to do things like hold inspections.

[Merusk]

Report this morning is that the State/ Local Environmental health department DID know about the 250 TONS of ammonium nitrate fertilizer being stored on site but didn't report it to DHS as required.  The last safety inspection in 2011 would have uncovered this.

[Lantyssa]

Texas' environmental controls are shit.  The State does everything it can to bury anything that might hurt business.  Looks like this is another case of it coming back to bite us.

[IainC]

There are 2200 OSHA inspectors in the whole of the US. On average they'd have the manpower to inspect a facility like this one once every 129 years. Between those times they have to rely on whistleblowers (in a right to work state) or voluntary reporting.

Illuminating Guardian piece on the collapse and capture of the safety inspectorate in the US.

Even a modest growth in inspector rolls would be insufficient to make up for the growth in the workforce since OSHA's founding. Thus instead of inspectors, we get whistleblowers: a promise from the government that we may not be able to check conditions ourselves, but if you bother to tell us, we'll be very grateful. The reliance on self-reporting following the defunding of government enforcement is just one more part of a cycle that began in this country with the collapse of collective bargaining, an institution which at one point created workplace safety committees that took the place of both expansive state regulation and whistleblowing as a means of securing safe places to work.

It's no coincidence that many of the worst such incidents occur in states affected by both austerity cuts and low or declining union membership. Texas, a proud right-to-work state, led the nation in fatal workplace accidents in 2011, the last year data are available, with 433; more than twice the number of fatalities in the next largest state, New York, and nearly 50% more than California, despite having just two-thirds of California's workforce.

To be fair to Texas, workplace accidents can happen anywhere and at any time. But that's precisely the point. Republicans and shady employers don't like unions, federal regulation, or whistleblowers. They presumably don't like massive deadly explosions, either. But they cling to the fantasy that they can have none of the above.

[Ingmar]

didn't report it to DHS

Maybe we can send them to prison under the Patriot Act. 

[Soulflame]

Why would they care about massive deadly explosions?  After all, the feds will come in and pay for the whole thing, with other people's money.

Just more privatize the profits, socialize the risk.

[Morat20]

Texas' environmental controls are shit.  The State does everything it can to bury anything that might hurt business.  Looks like this is another case of it coming back to bite us.

It can be summed up in George Bush's "Voluntary Disclosure" program. Wherein industries would PROMISE not to pollute, and in return we wouldn't check.

No, I'm not fucking kidding. It didn't fly, even in Texas.

[Khaldun]

Trying to keep this out of politics, but the disparity in how we cover this story nationwide compared to Boston is a fascinating blueprint of power and the public imaginary. Two catastrophes, many deaths and injuries, and human agency and responsibility involved in both. But so so very different for reasons that are both legitimate and not in how they're talked about and followed up on.