Explosion hits fertilizer plant north of Waco, Texas

[Ghambit]

As if we needed more of this.  Video says it all.  Enormous explosion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROrpKx3aIjA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Reports are part of the town is leveled and it's likely there were first responder fatalities.

[Samprimary]

April is the cruellest month, breeding   
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing   
Memory and desire, stirring   
Dull roots with spring rain.

[rk47]

It's an accident, right?

[schild]

Unless someone announces they did it, there's probably no way to find out, it was a 2.1 magnitude explosion.

[Abagadro]

It's an accident, right?

Most likely. Probably just a fire that hit either an ammonium nitrate or precursor chemical storage. Reminds me of the Pepcon fire/explosion.

[Arthur_Parker]

Fertilizer is fucking scary stuff.

[calapine]

What horror. A similar explosion in Oppau in 1921 killed 561 people. Probably was bigger, but still. Firefighters were on site too.  

[Samprimary]

The plant was about 60 years old. Given how notoriously terrible Texas is about zoning and sensible regulation, that's more than plenty enough time for the free market to inspire developers to crawl right up on and around it via the whims of people who decide that lower land value created by proximity to literally fifty four thousand pounds of anhydrous ammonia and fertilizer and some grain elevators means "whoa hey with real estate so dirt cheap here we can build here with lower overhead!"

Some of the things inspired by said market incentives were a nursing home, apartment complexes, playgrounds, and schools. Like you literally have a primary school and a nursing home within a block of a ginormous rack of explosive storage tanks and grain elevators. What.

Oh well at least in other areas like oversight we have sensible regulatioNOPE

[Samprimary]

Basically what my post outlines is that some people better damn well go to jail over this, even if a lot of other people who ultimately should go to jail for this won't.

[Tale]

Basically what my post outlines is that some people better damn well go to jail over this, even if a lot of other people who ultimately should go to jail for this won't.

It gets worse:

West fertilizer plant said in report that it presented no risk

The fertilizer plant that exploded Wednesday night in West, Texas, reported to the Environmental Protection Agency and local public safety officials that it presented no risk of fire or explosion, documents show.

West Fertilizer Co. reported having as much as 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on hand in an emergency planning report required of facilities that use toxic or hazardous chemicals.

But the report, reviewed Wednesday night by The Dallas Morning News, stated “no” under fire or explosive risks. The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one.

[Samprimary]

yeah, exactly. said link is at the end of my post.

from which at least some people will be going to jail. but the ones who built a nursing home next to a giant bomb won't. :/

[Tale]

Oh sorry didn't see the link in the NOPE.

What horror. A similar explosion in Oppau in 1921 killed 561 people. Probably was bigger, but still. Firefighters were on site too.  

There was also the Texas City Disaster, an ammonium nitrate fertiliser explosion that killed at least 581 people.

That happened on April 16, 1947. You don't have much luck with mid-April.

P.S. Just seen a commenter claim that this is "a false flag to take attention off the feds getting caught staging the Boston marathon blasts". There's bottomless stupid.

[Yoru]

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.

[Samprimary]

He seemed to be a reasonable distance from that plant. Given that this was a plant that first responders were going towards, and that had been described as 'will not explode, nope, all good' to the town, and he was right by a middle school. I mean if it was that dangerous even that far away why would they build a freaking middle school next to

then, boom.

[Sir T]

The guy seemed to be around  half a mile away. That's a very safe distance under normal circumstances and I would generally have no problems watching from that distance myself, and the authorities obviously had no problem with them being there. 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.

[calapine]

The WTF is © some 4chan dude, but it's very appropriate.

[Chimpy]

But, but, the railroad tracks mean it is in a totally different universe. Nothing bad ever crosses the tracks don't you know?

[Merusk]

Nobody with any brains at all sticks anything near a fertilizer plant.  That said; Texas.

I was angry with the Dad but only because I was taught you don't do that shit. Ever. If you don't know, yeah, you're going to think it's cool and you're safe if you can't feel the heat or hear the flames.

"Industrial area has a fire? Make sure you get a few miles away."  - Merusk's Dad.

He grew-up chasing fire trucks to watch fires and did it again when he got out of the Army.  Then his job as a shot salesman took him in to management and began touring factories where shot was made.  He discovered a whole world of leaky 50-gallon containers with hazard and explosive stickers that sit in warehouses for years with nobody paying them any mind.  After all, they'd been there for years and nothing happened so it's all good!  He stopped chasing fire trucks after that.

[Morat20]

I live about that close to a large oil refinery. Eh, maybe a half mile or mile further out. I'm under no delusions what will happen if it blows up. Thankfully, most of the plant is unlikely to explode. Just catch on fire. The explosions would be quite smaller.

Fertilizer, on the other hand, explodes very well. Wasn't that used in the Oklahoma City Bombing? A fertilizer based bomb?

The Texas City explosion in 47 was so big they found a ship's propeller (and by "ship" I mean "giant tanker" and by "propeller" I mean "15 foot blades") miles away.

[Merusk]

OKC was fertilizer, yes.  That's why you have to fill out reams of forms for any amount over a bag.  Farmers already had to do that prior to OKC, and after it got much, much worse. (McVeigh et. al bought it all with a farming license IIRC.)

[Sky]

This is just a shitty attempt to glom onto the Boston story.

[Arthur_Parker]

Fertilizer, on the other hand, explodes very well. Wasn't that used in the Oklahoma City Bombing? A fertilizer based bomb?

Portadown center after a 1,000 lb Fertilizer bomb in 93.  I didn't take the video but I was involved in the cleanup.

[Crumbs]

   Explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco TX on the 20th anniversary week of the ATF/Koresh clusterdeath

It's probably an accident but FFS.

[ghost]

I've been to West, Texas.  I'm surprised there was anything to blow up.

[Signe]

April is the cruellest month, breeding   
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing   
Memory and desire, stirring   
Dull roots with spring rain.

 

I'm about ready to give up the tv, radio and internet.  Everything that happens inside there is horrible and scary.  I'll just sit in my Cabin in the Woods and read poetry.  When I'm completely done with this world, I'll simply cross the road.  To die.  In the rain.  Like a chicken.

[Ironwood]

  I'll just sit in my Cabin in the Woods

Seriously ?  That's where you're going to escape the scary ?  Haven't you seen the film

[schild]

  I'll just sit in my Cabin in the Woods

Seriously ?  That's where you're going to escape the scary ?  Haven't you seen the film

Joss Whedon doesn't make films, he makes 2 hour short stories and 45 minute vignettes about 1-dimensional females.

[Signe]

I didn't actually see the film, but I remember the name of the two hour short story from the TV.  It's on my list to watch, though!  (now)

[ghost]

Just take an axe or two.  And maybe a shotgun.  It will work out okay. 

[Tale]

Some guy finished the Boston marathon and the first bomb exploded behind him, then he went to West, Texas and...

[Lakov_Sanite]

Some guy finished the Boston marathon and the first bomb exploded behind him, then he went to West, Texas and...

Final Destination?

[MahrinSkel]

Some guy finished the Boston marathon and the first bomb exploded behind him, then he went to West, Texas and...

Final Destination?

Hurley.  Guy needs to get a lottery ticket, then buy a private island to protect the rest of us.

--Dave

[Venkman]

Jesus Christ, that's like John MacClane wrong guy/wrong place timing. Poor man, hope he doesn't get a complex.

[Hawkbit]

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.

[Lantyssa]

Jesus Christ, that's like John MacClane wrong guy/wrong place timing. Poor man, hope he doesn't get a complex.

I'm thinking prime suspect.