Fertilizer plant explodes in West, Texas - massive damage/casualties

[Bama Reb]

Is that a proper link given the tone and language of the comments section below the article?.............
Of course the plant was there first, the houses and everything else came after.

Of course. If I had a job at a fertilizer plant, I'm sure I'd want to build me a new home right next to it so that I wouldn't have far to travel to work. :wink: Oh. And I'd want my kids to go to the school right there too!! :wink:

 

[Bamaro]

FWIW, West, Texas is actually in east Texas:smile:

 

[banjeaux]

FWIW, West, Texas is actually in east Texas:smile:

Folks in that part of Texas say, ...

 

[Displaced Bama Fan]

FWIW, West, Texas is actually in east Texas:smile:

Really more "central" Texas. East Texas is usually considered anything along the 59 corridor north of Houston - Livingston, Lufkin, Nacadoches, Tyler, Carthage, Jasper, Longview, etc.

 

[seebell]

Re: Why did West, TX, build homes & school next to 'time bomb'?

Perhaps, this Christian Science article will shed some light on the situation in West, Seebell. The plant was there first and out in the country from town. The powers-that-be allowed the construction.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0420/Why-did-West-Texas-build-homes-and-a-school-next-to-a-time-bomb/(page)/2

Thanks banjeaux. Good link and article. I understand that the plant was there first. I just don't think it's prudent to build a school next to something that could explode and do tremendous damage. I guess they had forgotten about the Texas City disaster.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chap...exas-City-was-also-caused-by-ammonium-nitrate

 

[lazlohollyfeld]

Re: Why did West, TX, build homes & school next to 'time bomb'?

Thanks banjeaux. Good link and article. I understand that the plant was there first. I just don't think it's prudent to build a school next to something that could explode and do tremendous damage. I guess they had forgotten about the Texas City disaster.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chap...exas-City-was-also-caused-by-ammonium-nitrate

No need to go back to 1947. Same thing happened in Toulouse, France just 12 years ago. That one killed 31 people, injured 2,000 and caused 3 billion in damages. And pay attention to the last sentence in this Business Week article. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-18/texas-fertilizer-explosion-recalls-french-disaster

 

[seebell]

Re: Why did West, TX, build homes & school next to 'time bomb'?

No need to go back to 1947. Same thing happened in Toulouse, France just 12 years ago. That one killed 31 people, injured 2,000 and caused 3 billion in damages. And pay attention to the last sentence in this Business Week article. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-18/texas-fertilizer-explosion-recalls-french-disaster

Thanks lazlo. Good post. I wasn't aware of that disaster. Once the homes, schools, etc go up around a plant it is hard if not impossible to do anything. Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I imagine if someone on the West School Board had objected to the location of the school,before it was built, he would have not been well received.

Wonder how the land for the schools was procured?

 

[Bamaro]

Re: Why did West, TX, build homes & school next to 'time bomb'?

No need to go back to 1947. Same thing happened in Toulouse, France just 12 years ago. That one killed 31 people, injured 2,000 and caused 3 billion in damages. And pay attention to the last sentence in this Business Week article. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-18/texas-fertilizer-explosion-recalls-french-disaster

On the 23rd, March 2005, a hydrocarbon vapour cloud explosion occurred at the ISOM isomerization process unit at BP's Texas City refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers and injuring more than 170 others. The Texas City Refinery was the second-largest oil refinery in the state, and the third-largest in the United States with an input capacity of 437,000 barrels (69,500 m3) per day as of January 1, 2000.[1] BP acquired the Texas City refinery as part of its merger with Amoco in 1999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Refinery_explosion

 

[lazlohollyfeld]

Re: Why did West, TX, build homes & school next to 'time bomb'?

Thanks lazlo. Good post. I wasn't aware of that disaster. Once the homes, schools, etc go up around a plant it is hard if not impossible to do anything. Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I imagine if someone on the West School Board had objected to the location of the school,before it was built, he would have not been well received.

Wonder how the land for the schools was procured?

School districts in Texas (with one single exception) are completely independent from city and county jurisdiction. School districts here are their own taxing authority and they determine boundary lines independently, meaning a given school districts lines rarely correspond with the city they are linked. The boundary line for Allen ISD includes all of the city of Allen along with small parts of McKinney, Lucas, Plano, and Parker, TX. My wife grew up in the Lake Highlands area of Dallas which is notable for the fact that you have a Dallas address but is entirely within Richardson ISD. The houses there are valued for that very fact. And this is not exactly a small chunk of Dallas, it is big enough to fill Lake Highlands High School with 2,500 students. It is also not uncommon for smaller city's to be served by a larger nearby city's ISD, or for that relationship to remain in place long after they have grown. Garland ISD serves all of Rowlett and Sachse despite those cities having 56,000 and 20,000 residents and being large enough to handle it themselves.

So who knows why they choose to build there as I doubt West ISD was constrained with finding available land within the city limits as the district boundary line is much larger. West ISD undoubtedly handles a good chunk of the surrounding unincorporated McLennan County residents.

 

[banjeaux]

West paramedic charged with having explosive device

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...ith-having-explosive-4505687.php?cmpid=hpfsln

A West emergency medical technician was arrested Friday on a charge of possessing an explosive device, as concerns surfaced about the technician's relationship to a local victim of a deadly fertilizer plant explosion.

Bryce Reed, 31, appeared in court Friday in McLennan County, less than a month after 14 people died at or near the West Fertilizer Co. plant.

In a statement, McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said no evidence thus far connects Reed to the fertilizer plant blast.

Meanwhile Friday, following Reed's arrest, state law enforcement officials instructed the Texas Rangers to help the McLennan County Sheriff's Office launch a criminal investigation into the blast.

"This disaster has severely impacted the community of West, and we want to ensure that no stone goes unturned and that all the facts related to this incident are uncovered," said Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw in a news release.

Federal investigator Douglas Kunze said in an affidavit that Reed admitted to owning a pipe bomb he gave to an Abbott, Texas, resident April 26. On May 7 the unidentified Abbott resident alerted McLennan County deputies, who turned over the package to federal investigators after the county bomb squad secured it.
The affidavit said the device included a 3.5-inch long, 1.5-inch wide metal pipe attached to galvanized end caps. With the pipe was an assortment of items related to bomb-making, such as a lighter, scale, fuse wire, coils of metal ribbon and chemicals common in explosives manufacturing.

The April 17 blast left a 93-foot-wide crater at its origin and scores of homes destroyed or severely damaged. Officials are still examining the scene, said Rachel Moreno, spokeswoman for the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office.

"At this time authorities will not speculate whether the possession of the unregistered destructive device has any connection" to the plant explosion, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Officials have not determined how the fire started, but they did confirm earlier this week that the fire caused ammonium nitrate stored in a building at the West site to explode. Other contributing factors beyond the initial fire had to also play a role, Moreno said Monday.

Bryce Reed is seen in a May10, 2013, booking mug provided by the McClennan County Sheriff's office. Reed, a West, Texas emergency medical technician who praised his friends killed in a deadly fertilizer plant explosion, was arrested on a charge of possessing an explosive device. Bryce Reed often referred to Cyrus Reed, who died in the explosion, as his brother, although the two men were not related.Photo: COURTESY / COURTESY OF THE MCCLENNAN COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICE

 

[cbi1972]

Re: West paramedic charged with having explosive device

'It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.'

 

[TexasBama]

The 1947 explosion in Texas City was about 3 kilotons. Hiroshima was about 16 kilotons.