Rgr that...first responders are always up there in the front line.

A terrible tragedy :nope:

Damn, this has not been a good week for America at all, or indeed the world.

My heart goes out to the men at the scene of this terrible event.

Seen this picture going around a fair bit, I don't know if it's shopped or not, but if it isn't...damn:

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...2_2539659b.jpg

Does anyone have any idea of the force of the explosion yet? I've heard reports of 20 tons of ammonia nitrate which IIRC would equal 20 tons of TNT, but the explosion seems bigger than that. Either way, very nasty.

i dont think it is shopped, there is a Sonic drive in on the I-35 frontage road, it was built in 2008 or 2009 and there was a small amount of dirt work that had to be done to lay the parking lot and foundation of the drive in, hence the retaining wall which was constructed on the south side, this image is looking in a somewhat north/ NNE direction which is where the west fertilizer plant is situated in relation to the image location.

I say its genuine

That's taken from the parking lot of the Czech Stop.

Incredible. I don't think that's shopped.

yep... you're right

Incredible. It honestly looks like a nuclear blast...I mean, I know that mushroom clouds are common with large explosions, but still...wow...

Here's LL video about the cloud.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=240_1366272529

Very nasty indeed :nope:

Reminds me a bit of Buncefield, that produced a M2.4 quake as well when it went up, the sound of the explosion woke me up, even though I was nearly 100 miles away from it. It was a large Fuel-Air explosion though rather than a nitrogen based one, really ruined the local area though but it could have been a lot worse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP09zBkBtz8

If I attached it correctly... here is another photo of the same mushroom cloud from the fertilizer plant explosion here in Texas:

Daaamn, looks like a volcanic eruption more than a mushroom cloud in that pic. :o

and yet somehow some people still find it in their hearts to argue against safe sources of energy such as nuclear...

Nuclear power is not flawless either it may be safer in some respects the problem is when an accident occurs it can cause devastation on a massive scale as in Chernobyl.

Another problem I have with nuclear power are the spent fuel rods these are danger for 50,000 years and so far no one has come up with a viable long term solution when it comes to a safe way to store them until they are no longer harmful.

I think the only two truly safe sources of energy at the moment are solar and perhaps windpower, although if you're standing underneath a wind turbine when a blade comes off then it's going to hurt...
Unfortunately neither of those outputs enough power to feed our hungry empires. :dead: