[NotAJerry]

http://www.wfaa.com/news/texas-news/pow ... 08001.html

Looks like 4 blocks of the town of West, TX (north of Waco) was leveled by an explosion at a fertilizer plant.

[Purple Haize]

Busy news week. Wonder if there were Branch Davidians involved? The date is close and they didn't kill them all.

[jbock13]

Time for the media to get all excited!

[Purple Haize]

Holy Crap
Check out the YouTube video of the explosion made by a guy on his cam phone in his truck with his daughter. I'm scared to even think what happened to the first responders on the scene

[youtube]

[/youtube]

See if this link works
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A ... CyxyVw&s=1

[NotAJerry]

A photo of a nearby apartment complex after the explosion.

[NotAJerry]

Hearing 60-70 dead, many first responders that were dealing with the situation before the explosion, and an additional 250-300 personnel are being brought in to try and deal with the carnage.

EDIT: West Fertilizer Co. reported having as much as 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia. The OKC bomb was 4800 pounds.

[jbock13]

Crazy. And sad. But things like that can always happen with such dangerous chemicals.

[4everfsu]

I saw a report three firefighters missing....

[RubberMallet]

we have a huge portion of schools that are our customers in that area. this whole thing is nuts.

[Purple Haize]

I saw a report three firefighters missing....

If its only 3 that is a good thing. Not for the family of those three obviously but could have been much worse and made response difficult

[NotAJerry]

Yeah, looking like the fatalities are going to be much lower than initially expected. Still, the explosion was felt up to 90 miles away and registered a 2.1 on the Richter scale.

[Purple Haize]

It will be interesting to see when they determine if this was an accident, criminal or terrorist attack.

[RubberMallet]

my guess is some type of inspection was missed and it was some sort of negligence. i guess wrong alot though.

[Sly Fox]

West is a cute little town between Waco & Dallas where Texans often stop for kolaches at one of the Czech restaurants along I-35. I have stopped there scores of times and known a number of folks from the town. This is horrific.

[NotAJerry]

West is a cute little town between Waco & Dallas where Texans often stop for kolaches at one of the Czech restaurants along I-35. I have stopped there scores of times and known a number of folks from the town. This is horrific.

The Czech Stop. One of my friends who went to UT and grew up in Dallas said that The Czech Stop was a required stop any time he was on I-35.

[BJWilliams]

Talked to my sister last night and she said a couple things to put this in perspective:

1) The OKC bombing involved 4,000 lbs of fertilizer. The plant that exploded, held almost 14 TIMES that amount.
2) She lives in Arlington, just over 80 miles away, and with a clear view you could see the explosion from there.