A fire and chemical explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant
in a small town north of Waco, Texas, sent at least 180 people to
hospitals, flattened homes and prompted widespread evacuations.
The blast Wednesday evening at the West Fertilizer Plant in West, Texas,
killed an estimated five to 15 people, said Sgt. William Patrick
Swanton of the Waco Police Department, who was relaying information to
the media.more pics after the cut...
"I know that's a rough estimate," Swanton told reporters, "but that's the best that I can give you."
West EMS Director Dr. George Smith, himself injured and bloody, said
that though he had not personally seen bodies to confirm deaths, he
believed the blast killed at least two emergency responders to a fire at
the plant before the initial explosion and a person at a nearby
apartment complex that suffered serious damage.
In addition, some responders to the fire before the explosion were
believed unaccounted for, according to Smith, Swanton and West Mayor
Tommy Muska.
Officials early this morning still were going door-to-door searching for survivors in the blast zone.
They were treating the site of the explosion as a crime scene.
"We are not indicating that it is a crime but we don't know," Swanton said. "What that means to us is that until we know that it is an industrial accident we will work it as a crime scene. ATF [the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] is conducting the main investigation." More Here and Here
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