Deadly Texas fertilizer plant blast injures at least 100
Baku, April 18 (AZERTAC). An explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, Wednesday night has caused an unconfirmed number of deaths and injured at least a hundred people, leaving the factory a smouldering ruin and causing major damage to surrounding buildings.
The blast at West Fertilizer in West, a community about 30 kilometers north of Waco, happened shortly before 8 p.m. local time and could be heard as far away as Waxahachie, 70 kilometres to the north.
The explosion sent flames shooting high into the night sky, and rained burning embers, shrapnel and debris down on shocked and frightened residents.
“We have a tremendous amount of injuries, probably over 100 injuries at this time,” said D.L. Wilson, a spokesman with the Texas Department of Safety.
“We do have confirmed fatalities. The number is not current yet and it could go up by the minute,” he said after midnight.
West Mayor Tommy Muska told reporters that his city of about 2,800 residents needs "your prayers."
"We've got a lot of people who are hurt, and there's a lot of people, I'm sure, who aren't gonna be here tomorrow," Muska said. "We're gonna search for everybody. We're gonna make sure everybody's accounted for. That's the most important thing right now."
Five or six volunteer firefighters were at the plant fire when the explosion happened, Muska said, and not all have been accounted for.
Aerial footage showed fires still smouldering in the ruins of the plant and in several surrounding buildings, and people being treated for injuries on the flood-lit local football field, which had been turned into a staging area for emergency responders.
A member of the city council, Al Vanek, said there is a four-block area around the explosion "that is totally decimated." Wilson said the damage was comparable to the destruction caused by the 1995 bomb blast that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
Muska, who is also a volunteer firefighter, said the town's department went to the plant to fight a fire about 6:30 p.m., and the blast that followed knocked off his fire helmet and blew out the doors and windows of his home nearby.
He said main fire was under control as of 11 p.m., but residents were urged to remain indoors because of the threat of new explosions or leaks of ammonia from the plant's ruins.
Among the damaged buildings was what appeared to be a housing complex with a collapsed roof, a nearby middle school and the West Rest Haven Nursing Home, from which first-responders evacuated 133 patients, some in wheelchairs.
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