Explosion in West,tx fertilizer plant

[greybeard]

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Ground zero appears to be the building missing in this pic. It stood between the demolished large round tank in the foreground and the smaller still upright white tanks. Look closely where people are standing on the right side--they are on a rr track that is badly bowed out to the right--tho the rails themselves appear to still be parallel to each other. Whatever took place immediately to the left of that area was forcefull enough to move the tracks and trackbed itself to the right.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I read where they are now saying that they had 270 tons of ammonium nitrate stored there. That will sure make a bang. And is much more likely to go bang than the other forms of nitrogen fertilizer. It looks to me like the center of the explosion is where the building on the left in the second picture use to be.

You got that right as that is what caused the worst industrial accident in US history.

There are several tank's that have been destroyed as well without knowing where the problem started, it is just guessing at what started the chain of event's. It has been stated there was propane, ammonia,and fertilizer on site all three have the potential to start the chain.
I seriously doubt they had a water deluge system on their NH3(ammonia) or propane storage facility. I didn't see any tank retaining firewall's around the tank's from the pic's.
The bad part here is some poor smuck can be charged with criminal and civil penalities if the site wasn't OSHA 1910 compliant.
Some of these people involved with the site operation, problem's are just starting.

 

[Caustic Burno]

/\
Ground zero appears to be the building missing in this pic. It stood between the demolished large round tank in the foreground and the smaller still upright white tanks. Look closely where people are standing on the right side--they are on a rr track that is badly bowed out to the right--tho the rails themselves appear to still be parallel to each other. Whatever took place immediately to the left of that area was forcefull enough to move the tracks and trackbed itself to the right.

From this pic GB the epicenter of the blast looks to be the warehouse.
That doesn't mean it was the ignition source.

 

[jedstivers]

On the NewAgtalk site one of the guys from that area said the town grew around the Co. They used to be away from everything. Don't know, just what someone on the Internet said.

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Let's see if I can get this to work. Maybe Texas Papaw can tell us what the different buildings were or CB tell us what was in the tanks and buildings??
before:

after:

Here's a discription on Greybeards photo's
top photo
1= nursing home
2=school
3=playground
Apartment building is the long narrow building between the nursing home and playground. basically nothing but open ground between explosion and apartments.

Second photo from north to south (top to bottom)

3 round grain bins
white roof on right is office/shop building
gray roof on the left next to rr tracks is a dry fertilizer blend plant with chemical & seed storage on the north end. This building is the one on fire in the video's. It did contain ammonium nitrate and also there was a railcar of nitrate on the track next to the dry fert building. Possibly the reason for me hearing 2 explosions in rapid succession.
4 long narrow white structures are anhydrous ammonia tanks and as the after pictures show are still there.
Upright smaller tanks were liquid fertilizer.
Another round grain bin on the south end.

There is nothing but a bomb crater where the dry fert building was and the debris from everything else flew away from the dry fert plant. Also that dry plant floor was built up 4 feet above ground level and is now a crater.

Hope this give y'all a better idea of the situation.

Was told by an informed source that fert dealer closed and locked up about 6 pm and about 6:30 a fire was reported by phone. Firefighters arrived and started fighting fire also they warned others of the impending danger. Evacuation was started at the nursing home and residents in the rooms closest to the fire were being moved to the far side until they could be transported out. The explosion was shortly before 8pm. The injured that I saw looked mostly like nursing home residents and had a lot of mostly small cuts probably from flying glass and debris. I'm sure the worst injuries were sent straight to he hospital. What little I saw was pretty gut wrenching and I only saw the tip of the iceberg.

We certainly appreciate the prayers and kindness by all. It's really heartwarming to see all the outpouring of love from so many. You would not believe all the food, clothing, supplies and volunteers that have come in. In fact have heard so much stuff has come in they are having trouble find places to put it as people have not been allowed to go back into the damaged areas yet. About 1/2 the town is still cordoned off.

FWIW most of the damaged buildings were built after the fert plant was built.

Police are now saying at least 14 dead and still searching rubble for others.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Ammonia nitrate can get to a phase of runaway reaction that is unstoppable.
Conditions have to be right . It has to be contained in some way for the reaction to occur without a detonator. The nitrate is the same compound in TNT. Water could be a source if the condition's are right and rapid oxidation occur's, there has to be a large quanity and pressure contained somehow.

 

[greybeard]

Here's a discription on Greybeards photo's
top photo
1= nursing home
2=school
3=playground
Apartment building is the long narrow building between the nursing home and playground. basically nothing but open ground between explosion and apartments.

Second photo from north to south (top to bottom)

3 round grain bins
white roof on right is office/shop building
gray roof on the left next to rr tracks is a dry fertilizer blend plant with chemical & seed storage on the north end. This building is the one on fire in the video's. It did contain ammonium nitrate and also there was a railcar of nitrate on the track next to the dry fert building. Possibly the reason for me hearing 2 explosions in rapid succession.
4 long narrow white structures are anhydrous ammonia tanks and as the after pictures show are still there.
Upright smaller tanks were liquid fertilizer.
Another round grain bin on the south end.

There is nothing but a bomb crater where the dry fert building was and the debris from everything else flew away from the dry fert plant. Also that dry plant floor was built up 4 feet above ground level and is now a crater.

Hope this give y'all a better idea of the situation.

Was told by an informed source that fert dealer closed and locked up about 6 pm and about 6:30 a fire was reported by phone. Firefighters arrived and started fighting fire also they warned others of the impending danger. Evacuation was started at the nursing home and residents in the rooms closest to the fire were being moved to the far side until they could be transported out. The explosion was shortly before 8pm. The injured that I saw looked mostly like nursing home residents and had a lot of mostly small cuts probably from flying glass and debris. I'm sure the worst injuries were sent straight to he hospital. What little I saw was pretty gut wrenching and I only saw the tip of the iceberg.

We certainly appreciate the prayers and kindness by all. It's really heartwarming to see all the outpouring of love from so many. You would not believe all the food, clothing, supplies and volunteers that have come in. In fact have heard so much stuff has come in they are having trouble find places to put it as people have not been allowed to go back into the damaged areas yet. About 1/2 the town is still cordoned off.

FWIW most of the damaged buildings were built after the fert plant was built.

Police are now saying at least 14 dead and still searching rubble for others.

Thanks for the description and corrections Pawpaw--pretty much nails down the explosion was a nitrate event and not a liquid or vapor anhydrous amonia explosion, unless there were some dang big propane tanks inside the mixing building too. I'm surprised that nitrate railcar didn't end up 1/2 way across the county.
What form would the nitrate be in? Beads--pellets?

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Nitrate is granular. Have a friend that lives about 8 miles downwind and said it rained down a fine grit at his place and there was the smell of 2,4d in the air. As it is prime pasture spraying season am sure there was plenty of 2,4d in the building. Another man who also lives near my friend told me he had an overhead door on his shop damaged. Another man who was outside at the time of the explosion could see the shock waves laying over a field of headed out wheat as it came toward him. This was about 4 miles from the explosions.

Even after seeing and hearing of the devestation, am not sure I fully understand how powerful this explosion was. I guess the most telling measurement is the 2.1 reading on the earthquake scale along with the total obliteration of the fert building including the raised concrete floor. The floor of that building was truck dock height (4ft) above ground level and now there is a crater. Seems to me that would take one he!! of a boom.

Thanks again for all the prayers, kindness and concern.

 

[greybeard]

Brock (papaw) do you know what the little white building or shed was?
Looks like maybe a wash rack or scales?

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Brock (papaw) do you know what the little white building or shed was?
Looks like maybe a wash rack or scales?

I think it is where they wash out the dry fert spreader buggies.

 

[jedstivers]

Y'all notice how directional the blast was? It went across the tracks toward the appt. building but didn't do anything in the direction of all the nh3 nurse trailers. Also took out the complete grain bins in the opposite direction oh the trailers. Anyway that's on real no importance just something I noticed.
I just really feel for everyone in that little town and area, it seems like its just like ours. Those volunteer fire fighters are just the salt of the earth this country needs more of, not less. They just walked (prol. ran) in their own death sentence with no other thought than saving others from the fire spreading.

 

[Anonymous]

May be more importance to the directional forces than you think Jed.

 

[jedstivers]

May be more importance to the directional forces than you think Jed.

What I meant is the poor folks are still dead, some might not be though because of it. To them it's very important.

 

[Anonymous]

The randomness of death is hard to fathom.

 

[greybeard]

The randomness of death is hard to fathom.

It's like a picture from a war zone and
I've always said, that on a battlefield, Death stands in the middle of it all and directs traffic.
"Bullet, go there--shrapnel there--fire,here--shell, back here. You over there-you live, you there-ya die. You--you're wounded.You guys up there, you burn."

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

I think many of us on the board are small-town-USA people; so it sunk in quickly how bad this situation is. PaPaw and Greybeard, please post if there is anything we can do.

 

[TexasBred]

Nitrate is granular. Have a friend that lives about 8 miles downwind and said it rained down a fine grit at his place and there was the smell of 2,4d in the air. As it is prime pasture spraying season am sure there was plenty of 2,4d in the building. Another man who also lives near my friend told me he had an overhead door on his shop damaged. Another man who was outside at the time of the explosion could see the shock waves laying over a field of headed out wheat as it came toward him. This was about 4 miles from the explosions.

Even after seeing and hearing of the devestation, am not sure I fully understand how powerful this explosion was. I guess the most telling measurement is the 2.1 reading on the earthquake scale along with the total obliteration of the fert building including the raised concrete floor. The floor of that building was truck dock height (4ft) above ground level and now there is a crater. Seems to me that would take one he!! of a boom.

Thanks again for all the prayers, kindness and concern.

HOLY COW !!!!!! Just came in from vacation today and just finished reading your posts. What a downer. This is such a wonderful little community. Used to do some consulting for the feed mill there years ago and met some wonderful folks there. Haven't heard any of the names of folks that have lost their life or been injured but I'm sure I knew a few of them. Sounds like a nightmare for the entire area.

 

[Texas PaPaw]

I think many of us on the board are small-town-USA people; so it sunk in quickly how bad this situation is. PaPaw and Greybeard, please post if there is anything we can do.

The donations of food, clothing, etc have been pouring in from all over. My understanding is they are running out of places to store it and are suggesting monetary donations would be best at this point along with your continued prayers.

Here's a link on how to donate money: http://pointwestbank.com/default.aspx?v ... b7c23972c7

Looks like you can use credit cards, paypal, or mail a check to either of the banks listed.

The generosity and love being shared by people from all over the world is certainly a testament to vast amount of wonderful caring people on this planet. Just reinforces the fact that there are a lot more wonderful, loving people than ugly hateful ones. Too bad the hateful ones get so much attention from the media.

Thanks again to all the wonderful folks out there. Please keep those prayers coming as the grief and struggles for many that are affected by this tragedy are just beginning.

 

[greybeard]

I think many of us on the board are small-town-USA people; so it sunk in quickly how bad this situation is. PaPaw and Greybeard, please post if there is anything we can do.

.Kathie--thanks, but I am a long long way from West, didn't feel or hear a thing, and posted the pics from off the internet and Google Earth to try to put things in perspective regarding how bad this explosion was and was interested in hearing other's opinions on the "how and why" of the matter..

 

[Caustic Burno]

The owner/operator's of that plant will be lucky if they don't end up sitting in Huntsville on murder conviction's.
They are in deep crap. There is going to be a list of violations as long as your arm.
There is OSHA 1910 violation's along, Homeland Security ,Texas Railroad Commison and TCEQ.
How that plant stayed below the line of sight and not filed proper document's will come out now.