Massive Explosion at Texas Fertilizer Plant. Many Injuries Expected
 

Looks like the bad news just keeps on coming. :down: I think CNN sucks... but they've got a good video grab here.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/17/us/tex...ion/index.html

Nasty, though apparently no fatalities reported.

It is worth bearing in mind that commercial fertilizer manufacture can be a fairly hazardous process - there seems no reason to assume this is anything other than an accident.

We've been watching this for a short while now.

Awful.

fertilizer processing can be some dangerous stuff :nope:

From some reports I've read, that will not remain so. It seems there was a fire prior to the explosion, with a large number of firefighters onsite when the explosion occurred.

Video:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/201...sion-in-texas/

Will keep a good thought for those folks down there. Sounds like there will be a lot casualties, especially with an explosion of that size.

I hope it is not like the 1947 Texas City disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster

Here's amateur video of the explosion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTGkEbMtst4

What particularly worried me was that I heard "a person just jumped out the window" right before it blew :(

Looks like almost a nuke going off from some perspectives. Really a scary and sad situation over there...

This is not a good week for Americans. Or Humans in general.

Terrible.

Local news saying numerous dead, reports of 60 plus, but probably worse.
Can't believe all the houses and even a nursing home near this sight.

Also, several firefighters reported injured, probably worse.


What a week..........

Damn. You can have no doubt that blast was several times louder in person and they appear to be at least 1,000 yards +/- away and it destroyed the vehicles windshield you can see that it is spider webbed.That was much more powerful than a even a 2,000 pound bomb going off you can compare by looking up shots of those getting dropped in Iraq and Afghanistan.Very creppy it almost looks like some of the explosive energy reached them something was just feet away from them you could see it.

The reported dead right now are apparently 2 paramedics and 3 firefighters, first responders who went to the scene when it was still just a fire and got caught in the explosion. They would've most probably known the real risk going in there. Now those are heroes that I'd definitely pause and give some thought for tonight :(

A couple of interesting maps:

Reddit users are maintaining this map of the situation based on latest info: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid...39603,0.084543

USGS seismic sensors have registered the explosion as a 2.1 earthquake: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...00g9yl#summary

Just terrible. :nope:

More bad news.

German news states "60 dead", at least 100 injured. Their source by which they quote is CBS, and CBS refers to the chief of local rescue teams.