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Fertilizer Plant in Texas (near Waco) Explodes - Massive Damage, Fatalities, Many injured

Adieu

By Adieu
in General Banter

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Adieu Grand Master

Adieu

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Well, I guess there were "tanks" of fertilizer so it is possible that there was a chain of explosions. The video definitely makes it seem like one large explosion though.

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Joyrex Grand Master

Joyrex

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interesting coincidence (note: not suggesting anything nefarious) that this happened in Waco, Texas, when the media was speculating the Boston bombing might have been done around the anniversary of Oklahoma city bombing which was done in response to the Waco incident. The incident happened on April 19th

Actually, it was in the oddly-named West Texas, which is near Waco - population of about 2800 people.

 

The current theory is the anhydrous ammonia (which is gaseous ammonia that does not contain water), which is used in making fertilizer, was likely set off by the fire fighters responding to a fire at the factory, and the water from their hoses ironically may be what caused the explosion. The factory was licensed to have 25 tons of the stuff on site, and the explosion was the equivalent of a truckload of TNT - for comparison, the pressure-cooker bombs in Boston were the equivalent of 1 stick of TNT. The Oklahoma City bombing used 4500lbs of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer for it's bomb. The blast was felt and heard as far away as 45 miles, and the earthquake monitoring station in Amarillo, Texas (some 400 miles away from the blast) registered it as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake on their sensors.

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joshuatxuk Grand Master

joshuatxuk

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Many of the deaths were firefighters and emergency personal. They interviewed the man who took the video this morning, he was literally going to take a video from his truck with his kids and drive back home - the place is pretty close to town. He said the truck lifted up and they all blacked out and lost their hearing at the time. The death/missing toll is between 5 and 15 but 60-80 homes were completely destroyed/written off, including a 50 unit apartment.

 

It's no exaggeration to say half of the town was destroyed or damaged. Anyone who travels I-35 frequently is familiar with West, TX, particularly it's kolache bakery right off the highway. It has a notable Czech community that lends itself to many of the street names and local restaurants and churches. I think they even offer Czech as a language in their high school. I hope it's just an accident, though quite a catastrophic one at that. A reminder of how dangerous these facilities are - so many operate daily without incident thanks to regulations and proper management. That said, there was a refinery fire and explosion yesterday near the coast of Texas and I thought it was the same incident when I immediately heard about it on the news.

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SR4 Grand Master

SR4

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jesus christ. :facepalm:

 

im not trying to equivocate the value of lost lives or anything, but it always gets to me when I find out a lot of these people died trying to rescue or salvage the injured from the initial explosions/fire.

 

same with 9/11. Regardless of who did it those firefighters really were amazing.

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joshuatxuk Grand Master

joshuatxuk

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or the texas city disaster.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster

 

 

My wife's grandfather interviewed for a refinery job at that port as well as an entry level job with Texaco that month in 1947. He was a college graduate and just finished serving in the US army. Both places offered him a job after his interviews and the refinery actually gave him a tour where he met dozens of staff members he would later work with. He said it was a tough decision but he decided to go with Texaco instead. I think the fact that he would travel more with Texaco was more appealing. Every single person he met at the Texas City refinery, including the manager who interviewed him, died that day in the explosion during the week he would of started working there. If he had made a different decision I would of never met my wife.

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delet... Grand Master

delet...

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read texas josh's post about that township ... it explains the bakery that was far from the explosion being ok thing so that everybody that drives past it on the freeway can still get their whatever czechs

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Guest nene multiple assgasms

Guest nene multiple assgasms

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read texas josh's post about that township ... it explains the bakery that was far from the explosion being ok thing so that everybody that drives past it on the freeway can still get their whatever czechs

 

oooooooohhhh.

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joshuatxuk Grand Master

joshuatxuk

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yeah it's totally an inside joke - one that applies to millions of people, but still an inside joke

 

beyond the kolache bakery/Czech gift store, West is pretty much indistinguishable from the literally thousands of towns that size in Texas

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