Huge Explosion at TX Fertilizer Plant; Mayor: ‘Around 35 Dead’, Could Rise; 160+ Injured

26 Comments on “Huge Explosion at TX Fertilizer Plant; Mayor: ‘Around 35 Dead’, Could Rise; 160+ Injured”

1. Meanwhile, Brad Blog ignores that CISPA was just passed by the House. What the HELL is wrong with you guys?

2. Waiting for an explosion near you? Grab your biking helmet, pots and pans. Then get in the tub with your iphone for further instructions. Use the faucet for water. PS Grab energy bars for long term stays.

3. Hey Jak Crow! Do your research. A simple google search by moi turned up well over a DOZEN articles by Bradblog re CISPA. Sheesh! He’s about the LAST person on the net you should be excoriating about that.

4. Not the first time for a disastrous fertilizer (ammonium nitrate) explosion in Texas.

   The Texas City Disaster — weirdly on April 16, 1947, 66 years ago yesterday — was caused by a fire on board a ship carrying tons of fertilizer, which then detonated and spread to another ship also carrying tons of fertilizer, which then spread to the refineries and fuel tanks all along the harbor front. Nearly 600 people died — at least, those were the bodies they could find. My father felt the explosion shake the house over 100 miles away.

5. Jak @ #1, CISPA didn’t pass the House. It passed out of a House committee – there is a difference. It doesn’t appear to have enough support to pass in the Senate, which is required to become actual law. And even if it did pass the Senate, Obama has already said he will veto it.

6. Yeah, you know we can count on Obama to always follow thru with his veto threats…166A8

7. Holy shit this is bad…

8. Good point, Mordant, but it still has to get through the Senate first. CISPA failed last time in the Senate, where (nearly) all legislation goes to die.

9. I don’t know what other chemicals were involved but anhydrous ammonia in and of itself is not flammable unless it reaches an auto ignition temp of like 1200-1500 degrees.

10. Desi,

    “My father felt the explosion [in 1947] shake the house over 100 miles away.”

    The explosion last evening could be heard in southerly portions of Dallas and Tarrant Counties (about 60-70 miles).

    This is a “free market” (i.e. lax safety regulations) explosion brought to you by the renegade state for “the public good.”

11. Score one for the right-wing “deregulation” mantra.

    No OSHA Inspections at Texas Plant in 5 Years.

    The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has not inspected West Fertilizer Co. in five years, and the EPA fined the plant in 2006 for failing to have a risk management plan.

12. Just an FYI on this statement from West Fertilizer to the EPA:

    The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one.

    A ten minute release of anhydrous ammonia would cause severe health problems, if not death. This is what poisoned people in Minot, ND, as covered in my film Broadcast Blues. And shortly after the BP oil fiasco, a farmer released anhydrous ammonia into the air, (unannounced.) A close friend who is a scientist was poisoned, as were many scientists working in the gulf, and others who never knew why their lungs became damaged. She suffers to this day.

    Bottom line, if anhydrous ammonia is getting into peoples’ lungs now as a result of this explosion, many people will have life long adverse health effects.

13. The first ship in Texas City had 900 TONS explode, then 1400 TONS explode seconds later!!
    (46 MILLION pounds)

    Just 27 tons of fertilizer supposedly caused that blast in West, according to the filed paperwork by the plant regarding its capacity.

    Ammonium nitrate is the substance produced at the plant. Once it hit 210 deg C in that raging fire, BOOM!, it instantly explodes.

    Fire at the storage tanks is supposed to be anticipated and prevented by design, otherwise the company is just building an extremely large bomb. Just shocking – the location in a residential area.
    http://rt.com/op-edge/texas-fertilizer-explosion-reasons-070/

14. 1. Why did Lobbyist Bill Lauderback create a Manta profile on West Fertilizer CO on the evening of 17th?

    2. The City of West TX and their OEM Alert failed. Website down an hour after blast and no twitter post from @WacoMclennanOEM till a day later. Same goes for Boston’s OEM twitter acct @AlertBoston on the day of.

    3. A short time after the blast, first responders secured their radios by turning them to VFIRE21. (Look it up) I tried listening to both Boston and West scanners immediately after news broke on both separate incidents. The trend for responders was to use their cell phones to talk to each other. Many were scolded by dispatch to stop using the wide band frequency. The only thing of interest to hear on those scanners was a prowler report. I heard the call made at 7:50 on TV. After that I think they used VFIRE21 until they set up command.

    4. What did I learn from this? Nothing. Could have been a drone strike.

15. I understand the need for some to immediately politicize tragedy even before having facts but too much is being made of OSHA not having inspected the facility in five years. That’s not unusual. If the EPA cited them for insufficient planning in risk management, then I assume they have since been presented a sufficient plan. Or the facility would have been shut down. State regulations (or lack thereof) does not trump federal regulations from the EPA.

16. Steve Snyder @ 15 said:

    I understand the need for some to immediately politicize tragedy even before having facts but too much is being made of OSHA not having inspected the facility in five years. That’s not unusual.

    Um, seriously, Steve?! That’s kinda the point!

    If the EPA cited them for insufficient planning in risk management, then I assume they have since been presented a sufficient plan. Or the facility would have been shut down.

    They presented a plan that said there was no danger of fire or explosion at the plant, Steve! Do you think that report was “sufficient”? Apparently when you use the “trust us” system for regulation, as you seem to support, anything can happen, I guess.

    Apparently you are not familiar with how the EPA, OSHA, etc. etc. etc. have been gutted, had their budgeted slashed, and can barely do anything that they are otherwise mandated to do by law.

    State regulations (or lack thereof) does not trump federal regulations from the EPA.

    You need to stop watching Fox or reading whatever RW “news” sources you must be listening to that have hoaxed you into believing the EPA shuts anything down, or that virtually ANY federal regulations are enforced. Hard to do without money or staff. That, despite what your RW “news” outlets have apparently conned you into believing.

    Perhaps you need to review this. Or, just go on finding reasons to delude yourself into believing that the stuff you read about here couldn’t possibly be true.

17. The security measures should be checked on each fertilizing plant.

18. Talk about deluding oneself, do you know what caused the fire and explosion Brad? No, you know what you WANT to be the cause, in the name of advancing an agenda. You need to quit with all the LW “news” sources. Let them figure out what happened.

19. Is any TV report discussing the fact that this is just unheard of for an American fertilizer plant producing ammonium nitrate, often also used in EXPLOSIVES, to operate so unsafely?

    Why was this facility constructed of flammable building materials in the first place? It was fully engulfed in flames.

    This shows the insane proximity of the residences to the plant, and the leveled plant:

    http://photos.oregonlive.com/photo-essay/2013/04/aerial_photos_of_damage_by_fer.html

    From WTOP: “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.”

    The report also states that firefighters were evacuating the neighborhood 20 minutes before the explosion.

20. No matter how many people it takes or how much time or money needs to be spent, I hope they get the guy.

    Of course, by “the guy,” I mean the person or people who stated in an government required “emergency planning report” that “storing 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia…poses no risk of explosion or fire” and by doing so were responsible for the death and maiming of more people than were harmed in Boston.

    Of course, since it created at least a dozen jobs in West, Texas, they won’t be held accountable and will probably be bailed out. How’s that anti-government regulation working out for you Mr. Perry?

21. Steve Snyder kept digging @ 18 with:

    Talk about deluding oneself, do you know what caused the fire and explosion Brad? No, you know what you WANT to be the cause, in the name of advancing an agenda. You need to quit with all the LW “news” sources. Let them figure out what happened.

    I don’t know the cause of the fire, nor ever claimed or reported that I did. I do, however, know that there have been a total of six (6) federal OSHA inspections of fertilizer plants in the entire huge state of TX since 2008. You are cool with that, I guess, and feel that everything is fine. That, despite the plant being found to have operated in 2006 without proper permits.

    As to my “LW ‘news’ sources”, when did the OSHA database because a “news source”, LW or otherwise??

    You are, of course, free to continue being an apologist for our woeful system of governance by corporation in this country and/or the success of drastically slashing social and safety programs for Americans in favor of using your tax dollars instead to combat imaginary overseas threats.

22. Since when did personal experience become a Fox News/RW source? I work with a large industrial project in CA. We have four facilities, two of which I am involved with on a daily basis. Both facilities have several hundred thousand gallons of dangerous fluids; toxic, volatile, and flammable. We have a plethora of various hazards throughout each facility including high noise levels, extreme heat, high voltage, high pressures, etc. In the lifetime of both facilities (over ten years) OSHA has never inspected. Not once. In the regulation capital of America known as California. Which brings me back to my original comment that OSHA not inspecting a facility in five years is not uncommon. What’s common is that the left will go out of their way to try and make an issue out of a non-issue if they think it will advance their agenda.

    BTW, you better believe if the EPA gives us marching orders on anything, whatever else we have going on becomes secondary.

    Finally, it really gets tiresome having you put words in my mouth. “Fox”, “RW”, “cool with that”, “apologist for … corporations”, the list goes on. It would be nice if just once you could try to make a point on merit rather than resorting to that garbage.

23. Steve once again shows himself apparently incapable of following the thread of an argument. Sigh.

24. Steve Snyder said @ 22:

    It would be nice if just once you could try to make a point on merit rather than resorting to that garbage.

    I would, if you didn’t toss shit out here that seems to come straight from the RW play book, without basis in evidence or reality. Somewhere along way, for example, you determined that the plan presented to the EPA must have been “sufficient” or they would have shut them down. In fact, they almost never do that, and inspections by them and other federal government agencies, like OSHA (as even you admit in the sentence you wrote prior and then again later) are almost non-existent. In one breath, when you picked this fight, you said “too much is being made of OSHA not having inspected the facility in five years. That’s not unusual.” In the next, you suggested that the EPA is too powerful. If I over-intepreted that to be your argument, then my apologies. It is, however, a well-worn (and well-debunked) RW argument. So hopefully you can see how that, coupled with your long history of baseless wingnut arguments, would set me off.

    And yes, you have that history and continue it today. For example, in one of the Boston threads you wrote: “CNN’s epic fail is now complete as the bad guys turned out to not be right wing white guys as ‘sources’ had ‘reported’.” In response, I asked you for a cite of that claim, and, to date, you’ve offered none. So you either have none, made it up out of whole cloth, or picked it up from somewhere which, I’m guessing, would be a RW outlet.

    You are free, as ever here, to straighten me out if you have actual facts to do so. I would, as always, welcome it.

25. I’m embarrassed – of course 2,300 TONS = (2,300)x(2,000)=4.6 MILLION LBS of highly explosive ammonium nitrate.

    Somehow though the 270 TONS the plant listed last year in its paperwork was somehow reported as just 27 tons in my source.

    This blast was about 12% of the waterborne blasts in 1947.

    “Fire crews from virtually every community in the area headed to the scene.”

    The DEAD are the firefighters and EMTs, some from other towns and likely unaware of the plant contents.

26. Actually, Irwin @ #25, the entire town and the volunteer (& retired) firefighters who rushed to the scene were well aware of the plant’s explosive contents — which is why they began immediately attempting to evacuate the nearby nursing home. These firefighters knew what they were up against. It underscores their sacrifice, and courage.

    The investigation will take time, but so far it appears that the company did not follow mandatory DHS disclosure requirements (a national security issue — how many other plants fail to self-report?) and other industry standard practices that would have protected the surrounding community in case of an accident (blast walls, special firefighting equipment). It remains to be seen how much of this preventable tragedy was due to lax state and federal enforcement and/or standards.

Comments are closed.