Our prayers go out to these people -- from Dallas News:
Fertilizer plant explosion injures dozens in West, near WacoCrap -- I know it was never intentionally planned but as a town grows, houses get built near industrial facilities. There should have been a buffer zone. There was even a nursing home within range of the blast. I know that Ammonium Nitrate is both a fertilizer and a component for an explosive -- never heard of it reacting this way with water. Hydrating it is a very strong endothermic reaction -- it is used in the instant cold packs...
A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant rocked the town of West, north of Waco, causing multiple casualties and leaving people trapped and buildings on fire.
Emergency personnel were bracing for the possibility of dozens of dead and many more injured in the blast, which occurred before 8 p.m. and could be heard 45 miles away in Waxahachie.
But after 11 p.m., the town�s mayor, Tommy Muska, said authorities still did not know how many people had been killed.
Firefighters were reported among the victims of the explosion, which occurred at West Fertilizer Inc., just off Interstate 35, about 80 miles south of Dallas.
A blaze had broken out earlier at the plant, and the explosion occurred while firefighters were trying to put it out.
�It was a small fire and then water got sprayed on the ammonia nitrate, and it exploded just like the Oklahoma City bomb,� said Jason Shelton, a clerk at the Czech Best Western Hotel in West. �I live about a thousand feet from it and it blew my screen door off and my back windows. There�s houses leveled that were right next to it.�
