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| Apartment complex in West, Texas, destroyed by the explosion. |
Yesterday evening, a fertilizer plant caught fire and then exploded in the tiny town of West, Texas, population 2800, situated on Interstate 35 about 20 miles north of Waco and 75 miles south of Dallas. The blast, measured at 2.1 on the Richter scale by the U. S. Geological Survey, was felt forty miles away, and destroyed more than fifty nearby homes, an apartment complex, and a nursing home. By midnight, at least five deaths and over a hundred casualties were known; authorities feared many more dead could be found as teams of searchers continued to work their way through the ruins overnight.
The Washington Post has maps and pictures of the destruction here.
3 comments:
There seems to be no end to the tragedies this year, my condolences. But why were residential areas built next to a dangerous chemicals plant?
Prayers ascending for these people.
Thanks, Davis.
To answer your question, Tim - it's just typical for small-town Texas to have industry, commerce, and housing all bunched up together with no plan or zoning restrictions. Things just grew up side by side that way more than a hundred years ago, so why change now? - that's the attitude.
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