Explosion near Waco, TX fertilizer plant

[Bdub01 201]

http://fox17online.com/2013/04/17/explosion-outside-waco-texas-injuries-reported/#axzz2QmfWt1pE

Is this an unfortunate coincidence after the Boston Marathon bombing or something more sinister?

[Forthwall 1,118]

Its scary

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/17/17800341-dozens-reported-injured-in-explosion-at-texas-fertilizer-plant?lite

Could be a coincidence, but its still a horrific event with hundreds hospitalized.

This video shows the explosion on camera :

[Cob92 360]

Students here at the university are planning to go up tomorrow to deliver aid and blood instead of going to DIA parties.

[Easy Bakes 253]

5 confirmed dead, 2 paramedics dead and 6 firefighters unaccounted for.

[Wiimeiser 452]

Wait, the sound of the explosion was delayed in the video. That means it was quite some distance away. It must've been like a nuke.

 

EDIT: It was audible from the outskirts of Dallas. And in the video it was delayed a whole second and still deafened someone...

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

1.  There was a small fire in the plant.  Firefighters and LEO responded.  It is a chemical plant apparently making Ammonium Nitrate (NH₄NO₃).  Not the world's greatest stuff to heat up.  It easily dissociates and becomes a great oxidizer when heated just a little.

 

2.  Many tonnes of product were in storage.

 

3.  Assuming the fire was some sort of accident (welder not taking proper precautions, for example), then depending on fuel availability, there is no question there was lots of oxidant.

 

4.  Until further elucidation by the authorities, it is a tragic industrial accident.

[Wiecher 192]

http://www.businessinsider.com/joe-berti-boston-marathon-texas-fertilizer-plant-explosion-2013-4

 

This man ran in the Boston marathon and finished right during the bombing, and a few days later he drove past the explosion of the fertilizer plant.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

12 confirmed dead.

 

Apparently, these in-town plants exist on some kind of grandfather clause.  There is something wrong with people who build a town adjacent to a plant that makes explosives.

[Bdub01 201]

^ Not to mention 200+ injured and 40 something still missing. I bet things are going to start changing in regards to populated areas near plants like that now. But apparently a few days? Weeks? After 9/11 a fertilizer plant in France blew up killing 30 and injuring 2000...

[Easy Bakes 253]

12 confirmed dead.

 

Apparently, these in-town plants exist on some kind of grandfather clause.  There is something wrong with people who build a town adjacent to a plant that makes explosives.

The town of West Tx has been there for a long time.

[Superbacon 380]

12 confirmed dead.

 

Apparently, these in-town plants exist on some kind of grandfather clause.  There is something wrong with people who build a town adjacent to a plant that makes explosives.

It makes fertilizer. Which I guess is the same thing as explosives when you consider its chemical composition.

[metarvo 712]

This kind of fertilizer was in fact used in the bomb that blew up the Murrah building in Oklahoma City in 1995, so it should be no surprise that a fertilizer plant could explode.  Some have even said that the type of explosion was similar. 

 

 

Apparently, these in-town plants exist on some kind of grandfather clause.  There is something wrong with people who build a town adjacent to a plant that makes explosives.

 

 

I imagine the town either didn't realize fertilizer is an explosive, or they just thought an explosion would never happen to them.  IMHO this should have been NIMBY on steroids, but somehow it wasn't.  I predict there will be a movement to ban the stuff.

[FreewayofFlight 41]

Also sounds like lax management by the owner of the plant/storage facility and possibly poor enforcement of regulations too

[Bdub01 201]

Also sounds like lax management by the owner of the plant/storage facility and possibly poor enforcement of regulations too

That plant apperantly did get in trouble in the past for some of those reasons !!!

[Wiimeiser 452]

 I predict there will be a movement to ban the stuff.

There mos likely will be. The US has already banned kinder eggs after a child in Poland[citation needed] choked on the toy.

[Duke87 1,070]

You can't really just "ban the stuff" because ammonium nitrate is a key fertilizer that is not easily substituted for. Although apparently Pakistan and Afghanistan did because it was getting used a lot locally for purposes other than agriculture (heh, imagine that).

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

There is no depth to which the stupidity of man cannot descend. 

 

We put chemical plants out in the boonies and towns grow up around them; we put airports out in the bush, and a town grows around it (Malton, Ontario).  Town and/or county councils should not zone residential/commercial properties next to industrial zones which contain zoning for chemical plants, but they do. 

 

Someone always has an axe to grind.  All that valuable land going to waste!  Sew the wind, reap the whirlwind.

[hym 358]

Out of curiosity, what about those people who work at facilities like this?  Just how far do you want them to have to commute to get to work every morning?

[Bdub01 201]

Haven't we learned anything from playing SC? You don't usually put residential right next to industrial. However it seems the plant was there before the R was, do whoever did the zoning dropped the ball. I'm not talking bout having the plants a million miles away but to at least keep them far enough away that if there is an explosion, R and C won't be destroyed by it.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Out of curiosity, what about those people who work at facilities like this?  Just how far do you want them to have to commute to get to work every morning?

Depends on the facility.  A chemical plant like that clearly needs a five blocks or so buffer zone.  And that is still walking distance, or cycling distance in any case.

[Duke87 1,070]

There is a perception problem. Put a conspicuous buffer zone around something and people will get scared and think it's dangerous. Don't have the buffer zone, and people will be more comfortable with it even if it isn't actually safer.

 

E.I. DuPont built his house right next door to his gunpowder factory in order to show off his confidence in the plant's safety.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

He should have got his Darwin award.  Of course its dangerous.  Plants like that belong in open country.

[Easy Bakes 253]

I wonder if it was when it was built.

but that don't change the fact they were storing  way more nitrate then they were allowed to.

[Bdub01 201]

Just heard on the radio that the investigation is now a criminal investigation. The plot thickens!

[FreewayofFlight 41]

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50146525n

 

This may not be the only such facility with the same potential dangers.

[Cobraroll 138]

Just heard on the radio that the investigation is now a criminal investigation. The plot thickens!

 

Probably "criminal" as in "criminal negligence" or something like that. I doubt somebody actually set the thing off.

[Bdub01 201]

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2150461

This explains it a little better...

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

More complications.

 

It is likely just an industrial accident caused by general carelessness and overconfidence on the part of management in storing such huge amounts of ammonium nitrate, which is a pretty good explosive on its own.

 

I don't think the arrest of Mr. Reed is relevant to the incident, however.  BBC should not have included this in the article.

[Easy Bakes 253]

A bit of over reaction to the events of last year.

quite the opposite of what should be occuring

 

http://www.wfaa.com/news/investigates/Exclusive-Hazardous-chemical-lists-no-longer-public-record-in-Texas-262943831.html

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Time to refer this to SCOTUS.  State law cannot pre-empt federal law.