It is a miracle that more weren't killed in this blast, that registered as a 2.1 earthquake, and was heard up to 50 miles away!
From The Blaze:
WEST, Texas (TheBlaze/AP) — The neighborhood
surrounding a Texas fertilizer plant that erupted in a thunderous explosion is gone, and the residents
here know they’ve lost more than the buildings that went up in flames.
Authorities say
about 200 are injured. Even before official numbers of the death toll were
released, the names of the dead were becoming known in the town of 2,800. Texas
Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jason Reyes said it was “with a heavy heart”
that he confirmed 12 bodies had been pulled from the area of the plant
explosion.
Believed to be
among them is a small group of firefighters and other first responders who may
have rushed toward the fire to fight it before the blast. At a church service at
St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church on Thursday night, the mourning was
already starting.
“We know
everyone that was there first, in the beginning,” said Christina Rodarte, 46,
who has lived in West for 27 years. “There’s no words for it. It is a small
community, and everyone knows the first responders, because anytime there’s
anything going on, the fire department is right there, all volunteer.”
Here’s a look
at photos of the blast aftermath:
Fertilizer Plant: The Day After
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: Search and rescue workers comb through what remains of a 50-unit apartment building (foreground) and the West Rest Haven Nursing Home the day after an explosion at the West Fertilizer Company destroyed the buildings April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: Valley Mills Fire Department personnel view the railroad tracks near to the fertilizer plant that exploded yesterday afternoon on April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: Search and rescue workers comb through what remains of a 50-unit apartment building the day after an explosion at the West Fertilizer Company destroyed the building April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: A railroad boxcar filled with ammonium nitrate lays on its side near to the remains of the fertilizer plant that exploded yesterday afternoon on April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- This Thursday, April 18, 2013 aerial photo shows the remains of a nursing home, left, apartment complex, center, and fertilizer plant, right, destroyed by an explosion in West, Texas. Rescuers searched the smoking remnants for survivors of Wednesday night's thunderous fertilizer plant explosion, gingerly checking smashed houses and apartments for anyone still trapped in debris while the community awaited word on the number of dead. Initial reports put the fatalities as high as 15, but later in the day, authorities backed away from any estimate and refused to elaborate. More than 160 people were hurt.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: A destroyed fire truck sits among piles of rubble where an explosion at the West Fertilizer Company leveled the business a day earlier April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 35 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: Smoke still rises from the rubble of a housenext to the fertilizer plant that exploded yesterday afternoon on April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: Valley Mills Fire Department personnel view the railroad tracks near to the fertilizer plant that exploded yesterday afternoon on April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: The remains of an apartment complex and a destroyed car lies in ruins next to the fertilizer plant that exploded yesterday afternoon on April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: The remains of an apartment complex next to the fertilizer plant that exploded yesterday afternoon on April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: A Valley Mills Fire Department personnel walks among the remains of an apartment complex next to the fertilizer plant that exploded yesterday afternoon on April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: The remains of an apartment complex next to the fertilizer plant that exploded yesterday afternoon on April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: Search and rescue workers comb through what remains of a 50-unit apartment building the day after an explosion at the West Fertilizer Company destroyed the building April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: A home burned to the ground by An explosion yesterday at the West Fertilizer Company is shown from the air on April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. According to West Mayor Tommy Muska, around 14 people, including 10 first responders, were killed and more than 150 people were injured when the fertilizer company caught fire and exploded, leaving damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: Bill Warren, a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4819, lowers the U.S. flag to half staff in memory of victims of the West Fertilizer Company explosion April 18, 2013 about 20 miles north of Waco in West, Texas. A fiery explosion that damaged or destroyed buildings within a half-mile radius ripped through the facility last night, injuring more than 160 people and killing an unknown number of others.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: Residents attend a candelight vigil and prayer honoring the victims of West Fertilizer Company explosion at St. Mary's Assumption Catholic Church April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. A fiery explosion that damaged or destroyed buildings within a half-mile radius ripped through the facility last night, injuring more than 160 people and killing an unknown number of others.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: Residents attend a candelight vigil and prayer honoring the victims of West Fertilizer Company explosion at St. Mary's Assumption Catholic Church April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. A fiery explosion that damaged or destroyed buildings within a half-mile radius ripped through the facility last night, injuring more than 160 people and killing an unknown number of others.
- WEST, TX - APRIL 18: Residents attend a candelight vigil and prayer honoring the victims of West Fertilizer Company explosion at St. Mary's Assumption Catholic Church April 18, 2013 in West, Texas. A fiery explosion that damaged or destroyed buildings within a half-mile radius ripped through the facility last night, injuring more than 160 people and killing an unknown number of others.
This video
shows aerial footage:
One victim who
Rodarte knew and whose name was released was Kenny Harris, a 52-year-old captain
in the Dallas Fire Department who lived south of West. He was off duty at the
time but responded to the fire to help, according to a statement from the city
of Dallas.
Friday, TheBlaze reported a Texas school counselor being “relieved of all duties” after she
issued a tweet about the town’s tragedy that said “it’s most of the whites who
is getting blown away.”
It was also recently revealed that a man who witnessed the tragic bombing of the Boston Marathon
Monday too watched the West Fertilizer Co. plant blast that occurred Wednesday
night after he had returned home.
Authorities
spent much of the day after Wednesday night’s blast searching the town for
survivors. It was not clear why they were having trouble tallying an official
death toll. At one point, they said they believed five to 15 people were among
the dead, but later backed off giving any firm estimate. Three to five volunteer
firefighters were believed to have perished.
Searches
continued early Friday morning, and authorities may release more information
about the death toll later in the day, said Texas State Trooper D.L. Wilson.
“Hopefully,” he said.
Even without a
full picture of the loss of life, what was becoming clear was that the town’s
landscape was going to be changed forever by the four-to-five block radius
leveled by the blast. An apartment complex was badly shattered, a school set
ablaze, and as many as 80 homes were seriously damaged.
Residents were
still being kept out of a large swath of West, where search and rescue teams
continued to pick through the rubble. Some with permission made forays closer to
the destruction and came back stunned, and it was possible that some residents
would be let closer to their homes on Friday, emergency workers said.
Garage doors
were ripped off homes. Fans hung askew from twisted porches. At West
Intermediate School, which was close to the blast site, all of the building’s
windows were blown out, as well as the cafeteria.
“I had an
expectation of what I would see, but what I saw went beyond my expectations in a
bad way,” said Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott after his visit. “It is very
disturbing to see the site.”
McLennan
County Sheriff Matt Cawthon said the area surrounding the destroyed fertilizer
plant is a highly populated neighborhood. He described it as “devastated” and
“still very volatile.” Ammonium nitrate – commonly used as fertilizer – was
found at the scene, but he didn’t know if any of the chemical remained.
Fifteen years
ago, Brenda Covey, 46, lived in that now leveled apartment complex across the
street from the plant.
On Thursday,
she learned that two men she knew, both volunteer firefighters, had perished.
Word of one came from her landlord because they live in the same complex in
nearby Hillsboro. The other was the best man at her nephew’s wedding.
“Word gets
around quick in a small town,” said Covey, who spent her whole life living in
and around West.
Firefighter
Darryl Hall, from Thorndale, which is about 50 miles away from West, was one of
the rescue workers who was going from house to house and checking to see if
anybody might have been inside.
“People’s
lives are devastated here. It’s hard to imagine,” Hall said.
The Wednesday
night blast was apparently touched off by a fire, but it remained unclear what
sparked the blaze. A team from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives still had not been able to begin investigating the scene because it
remained unsafe, agency spokeswoman Franceska Perot said.
The West
Fertilizer Co. facility stores and distributes anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer
that can be directly injected into soil, and a blender and mixer of other
fertilizers.
Records
reviewed by The Associated Press show the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration fined West Fertilizer $10,000 last summer for safety
violations that included planning to transport anhydrous ammonia without a
security plan. An inspector also found the plant’s ammonia tanks weren’t
properly labeled.
The government
accepted $5,250 after the company took what it described as corrective actions,
the records show. It is not unusual for companies to negotiate lower fines with
regulators.
In a
risk-management plan filed with the Environmental Protection Agency about a year
earlier, the company said it was not handling flammable materials and did not
have sprinklers, water-deluge systems, blast walls, fire walls or other safety
mechanisms in place at the plant.
State
officials require all facilities that handle anhydrous ammonia to have
sprinklers and other safety measures because it is a flammable substance,
according to Mike Wilson, head of air permitting for the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality.
But inspectors
would not necessarily check for such mechanisms, and it’s not known whether they
did when the West plant was last inspected in 2006, said Ramiro Garcia, head of
enforcement and compliance.
That
inspection followed a complaint about a strong ammonia smell, which the company
resolved by obtaining a new permit, said the commission’s executive director Zak
Covar. He said no other complaints had been filed with the state since then, so
there haven’t been additional inspections.
At the church
service, the Rev. Ed Karasek told the hundreds gathered that it would take time
for the community to heal.
“Our hearts
are hurting, our hearts are broken,” he said. The non-denominational gathering
for prayer and song was intended to honor those who rushed toward the danger and
those who found themselves too close.
“I know that
every one of us is in shock,” he said. “We don’t know what to think.”
“Our town of
West will never be the same, but we will persevere.”
Associated Press writers Michael Brick, Nomaan Merchant and Angela K. Brown
and video journalists John L. Mone and Raquel Maria Dillon in West; writers
Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston and Seth Borenstein
and Jack Gillum in Washington contributed to this report.
With all of this grim news, one has to keep looking for all the good people that help, like Mr. Rogers' mother used to tell him.
God is not going to let this go on much longer! Jesus is coming and will split the sky soon!
Matthew 24:14, 30-31, "And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.
And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven."
Revelation 22:7, "Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book."
God's best 2 U, Joy J
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