SEE IT: Massive explosion near Waco, Texas injures at least 160, between 5 to 15 feared dead
The explosion at West Fertilizer in downtown West, a community about 20 miles north of Waco, happened around 7 p.m. and could be heard as far away as Waxahachie, 45 miles to the north.
BY GINGER ADAMS OTIS / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2013, 10:49 PM
UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013, 12:25 PM
ROD AYDELOTTE/WACO TRIBUNE HERALD VIA AP
A person looks on as emergency workers fight a house fire after a near by fertilizer plant exploded in West, Texas.
Rescue workers were scrambling through the smoking ruins of a Texas fertilizer plant Thursday in a desperate bid to find survivors after a monstrous explosion flattened buildings in every direction and may have left as many as 15 dead.
Officials put the death count at anywhere between five and 15 and the number of injured at 160 at an early morning press conference.
The search was on for more victims and several missing volunteer firefighters as the sun came up on a scene of shocking devastation — with reports of looting adding to the chaos.
ANDY BARTEE/AP
In this Instagram photo provided by Andy Bartee, a plume of smoke rises from a fertilizer plant fire in West, Texas on Wednesday, April 17, 2013.
The blast inside the West Fertilizer factory, located in West, Texas, about 80 miles south of Dallas, occurred at 7:53 p.m. Wednesday.
Most of the town’s volunteer firefighters were already inside the plant, responding to a 7:30 p.m. report of a small fire, when the explosion occurred, Waco Police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said.
The firefighters had immediately begun moving workers out of the chemical-filled plant, where ammonia, among other things, was stored.
LM OTERO/AP
Firefighters check a destroyed apartment complex near the fertilizer plant that exploded.
PHOTOS: WEST, TEXAS FERTILIZER PLANT EXPLOSION
“They realized the seriousness of what they had,” Swanton said.
Firefighters were also working to evacuate the area around the plant when the blast sent flames shooting into the sky. Scalding hot embers and debris rained down on frightened residents, who ran for cover.
LARRY W. SMITH/EPA
Twisted remains of a fertilizer plant and other buildings and vehicles after the horrific explosion.
The killer explosion shook the ground with the power of a small earthquake and smashed roofs, walls and floors in a four-block radius around the burning fertilizer plant.
Some 50 to 75 houses were “totally decimated,” officials said, with one apartment complex reduced to “a skeleton.”
Anyone who could help rushed to evacuate the nearby West Rest Haven Nursing Home, hustling 133 patients, some in wheelchairs, to safer locations.
JOE BERTI/TWITTER VIA REUTERS
A column of smoke rises after an explosion at a fertilizer plant north of Waco, Texas on Wednesday night.
Information was still “very limited” from the scene, where rescuers were trying to dig beneath the smoking rubble for anyone trapped below, according to Swanton.
RELATED: WATCH IT: FOOTAGE SHOWS BLAST FROM TEXAS FERTILIZER PLANT FIRE
As many as five emergency personnel were missing and may be among the dead.
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A photo captures the scene of a fire at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas.
“(Rescuers) have not gotten to the point of no return where they don’t think that there’s anybody still alive,” Swanton said.
Police reported some looting overnight — which poses a serious concern for community, he said.
The neighborhood around the disaster site was locked down to prevent further problems, he said.
MICHAEL AINSWORTH/THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS VIA AP
The explosion at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas took place shortly before 8 p.m.
The site is being treated as a crime scene, but there’s no indications the fire wasn’t accidental, Swanton said, laying to rest fears the blast was connected to a coordinated attack Monday at the Boston Marathon that killed three and injured hundreds.
The West Factory explosion may be the worst U.S. industrial disaster since a Texas refinery blast in 2005 that killed 15 and injured 170.
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MICHAEL AINSWORTH/THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS VIA AP
The explosion could be heard as far as 45 miles away.
Local, state and federal officials are still trying to figure out how many workers were in the West Fertilizer plant itself — not to mention the residents in the many homes around it.
The fertilizer plant, owned by Adair Grain Inc., was cited by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2006 for failing to obtain or to qualify for a permit.
The agency acted after receiving a complaint in June of that year of a strong ammonia smell.
ROD AYDELOTTE/WACO TRIBUNE HERALD VIA AP
A firefighter searches a nursing home that was damaged after an explosion at a nearby by fertilizer plant Wednesday.
In a safety report filed with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the fertilizer company swore it was at no risk of fire or explosion, according to documents obtained by the Dallas Morning News.
“West Fertilizer Co. reported having as much as 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on hand in an emergency planning report required of facilities that use toxic or hazardous chemicals,” the newspaper reported.
But the company checked the “NO” box when asked if there was any risk of fire or explosion, according to the Dallas paper, which did not specify the date of the report.
ROD AYDELOTTE/WACO TRIBUNE HERALD VIA AP
An injured nursing home resident is evacuated after the explosion at the nearby fertilizer plant in West, Texas.
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The company told the EPA its worst-case scenario would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would essentially be harmless, the newspaper reported.
In the hours after the blast, West residents wandered the dark, windy streets searching for shelter. Among them was Julie Zahirniako, who said she and her son, Anthony, had been playing at a school playground near the fertilizer plant when the explosion hit. The explosion threw her son four feet in the air, breaking his ribs.
ROD AYDELOTTE/WACO TRIBUNE HERALD VIA AP
Emergency workers evacuate elderly from a damaged nursing home following an explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas just outside Waco.
“The fire was so high,” Zahirniako said. “It was just as loud as it could be. The ground and everything was shaking.”
William Burch and his wife, a retired Air Force nurse, entered the damaged nursing home before first responders arrived. They split up, searching separate wings, and found residents in wheelchairs trapped in their rooms. The halls were dark and the ceilings had collapsed.
Water filled the hallways and electrical wires hung eerily from the ceilings.
ROD AYDELOTTE/WACO TRIBUNE HERALD VIA AP
An elderly person is assisted at a staging area at a local school stadium following an explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, just outside Waco.
“They had Sheetrock that was on top of them. You had to remove that,” Burch said. It was “completely chaotic.”
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The scene was reminiscent of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that destroyed a building in the heart of the city.
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The blast forced authorities to call for an evacuation.
Authorities said the plant made materials similar to that used to fuel the bomb that tore apart Oklahoma’s Murrah Federal Building.
Dozens of emergency vehicles amassed in West at the factory’s burned-out shell in the hours after the blast. Firefighters used flashlights to search the still-burning skeleton of an apartment complex that was all but destroyed.
All that remained of a nearby house was the fireplace and chimney, standing tall among smoldering embers of what was once someone’s home.
About 100 of the injured were treated at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, where five people were in intensive care. Another 65 were taken to Providence Health Center in Waco.
Officials said the injuries included broken bones, bruises, lacerations, respiratory distress, and some head injuries and minor burns.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said it was deploying a large investigation team to West. An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms national response team that investigates all large fires and explosions also was coming in, bringing fire investigators, certified explosives specialists, chemists, canines and forensic specialists. But entry to the blast site wasn’t expected until later.
“It’s still too hot to get in there,” said Franceska Perot, an ATF spokeswoman.
With News Wire Services
