Fertilizer plant explosion: Eyewitnesses describe the massive explosion and its aftermath in the town of West, Texas, that has injured dozens and killed an unknown number of people.
A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in the town of West, Texas, about 20 miles north of Waco, injured dozens of people and killed an unknown number of others (estimates around 5 to 15 fatalities as of Thursday morning). It leveled blocks in the town, which has a population of about 2,800.
“It was like a nuclear bomb went off,” one man told Texas broadcaster Kens5. He was looking for a lost relative on Willie Nelson Road.
D.L. Wilson of the Department of Public Safety described the scene in a press conference broadcast by CNN: “Just like Iraq; just like the Murrah building in Oklahoma City.”
In a recording of the emergency dispatch call on the Dallas Morning News website, an emergency service worker on the scene gives the order for all personnel to leave the area. The workers were on scene before the explosion, after a fire was reported at the plant. Firefighters were injured in the explosion.
“Everybody needs to get away,” the worker said. “All units on scene, they need to load up and get out of there right now.”
A man who rushed to help people trapped in a demolished nursing home recounted the experience to local broadcaster WFAA-TV.
“I could hear people crying and trapped,” he said. The four stairways were all collapsed. He tried to climb up to a man who was yelling for help. A board collapsed, and he said, “I just couldn’t get to him.”
He said the man was not hurt, just trapped.
West Mayor Tommy Muska at a press conference reported that first responders evacuated 133 patients from West Rest Haven Nursing Home, some in wheelchairs.
Of the general situation, he said: “We’ve got a lot of people who are hurt, and there’s a lot of people, I’m sure, who aren’t gonna be here tomorrow … We’re gonna search for everybody. We’re gonna make sure everybody’s accounted for. That’s the most important thing right now.”
The explosion damaged an estimated 50–75 houses, and set West Middle School on fire. It could be heard nearly 50 miles away from downtown West where the West Fertilizer plant is located.
Residents in Waxahachie, 45 miles north of West, reported hearing the explosion. Kevin Jolly, a resident of Crowley, about 50 miles away, felt the effects.
“We felt it in Crowley, but thought it was the wind trying to open the doors in the church. Didn’t realize it was the effects of this explosion. I can’t imagine what these citizens are dealing with,” he wrote on WFAA-TV’s Facebook page.
Debby Marak told the Associated Press (AP) that she was on her way home Wednesday night when she noticed a lot of smoke in the area across town near the plant. Two boys were running away and told her that authorities had ordered everyone out, that the plant might explode.
Marak hadn’t gone further than a block when the explosion shook her.
“It was like being in a tornado,” Marak, 58, said in a phone interview with AP. “Stuff was flying everywhere. It blew out my windshield.”
“It was like the whole earth shook.”
Erick Perez, 21, of West, was playing basketball at a nearby school when the fire started. He and his friends thought nothing of it at first, but about a half-hour later, the smoke changed color. The blast threw him, his nephew and others to the ground and showered the area with hot embers, shrapnel and debris.
“The explosion was like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” Perez said. “This town is hurt really bad.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
