Massive explosion at Texas fertilizer plant near Waco

cplmac

cplmac

Registered User
Joined
Nov 16, 2010
Messages
3,840
Unconfirmed reports are saying dozens dead over 100 injured but these are UNCONFIRMED. Dozens of homes destroyed and many firefighters in the plant when it blew according to early reports. The fire is being allowed to burn itself out now. This is going to be much worse than the Pepcon disaster. There is an armature video of the explosion as someone was filming firefighters fighting the fire when it blew. Pepcon was ammonium perchlorate, this factory works with anhydrous ammonia so it could be ammonium nitrate that detonated (a common mass production fertilizer and blasting agent). WTF, some good news please, this is getting ridiculous.
 
Im sorry, but WHY THE FUCK would you as a fire chief tell your guys to go into burning fertilizer plant? You know there is a high risk of it exploding. Why put your people at risk? What on earth are you going to gain by trying to control such a fire? understandingly it's important to put out fires as a fire fighter, but why??? for a few houses surrounding the area!? that's negligence.
 
here's the video:


[video=youtube;ROrpKx3aIjA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ROrpKx3aIjA[/video]
 
Lex I gotta take up for them on this one. I just created a google map real quick to layout the ground, you can see why they didn't want to just let it blow.

Map of blast area

<iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=206152942388275845457.0004da9f1da72fdbef233&msa=0&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=31.815766,-97.086053&spn=0.017504,0.027466&z=15&output=embed" width="640" frameborder="0" height="480" scrolling="no"></iframe>

<small>View West, TX fertilizer plant in a larger map</small>

The center of the map is the fertilizer plant, the red lines are 1/4 mile which is a blast radius which could expect to see significant to catastrophic damage. You may have to click the link to see the quarter mile lines and labels I put on the various schools, apartment complexes and rest homes that are well within the 1/4 mile radius.

BREAKING spokesman for the incident is saying currently they believe 5-15 dead but they are and have been all night intentionally retarding their information further strengthening the stereotype. Also 160+ injured that have been treated at area hospitals.
 
Not to be a prick here, but this is exactly what drove me crazy about the south. Why the fuck would a fertilizer plant dealing with that shit be allowed anywhere near homes, hospitals, and schools? This is why zoning matters, and why regulatory agencies were founded. If this plant was further away from everything then the area could be more easily evacuated and, like Lex pointed out, then the fire department could work on containment and not put people needlessly at risk.
 
ChuckTheHammer said:
Not to be a prick here, but this is exactly what drove me crazy about the south. Why the fuck would a fertilizer plant dealing with that shit be allowed anywhere near homes, hospitals, and schools? This is why zoning matters, and why regulatory agencies were founded. If this plant was further away from everything then the area could be more easily evacuated and, like Lex pointed out, then the fire department could work on containment and not put people needlessly at risk.
Click to expand...

exactly my point.. Negligent.


I am in no way discrediting the bravery of the firefighters, because they knew exactly what they getting into and did it anyway... but what I do question is their fucking common sense.
 
it's like the propane storage plant in downtown toronto. there be clever city planners about i tell ya
 
It is definitely scary to think that this kind of plant was that close to a population center. Prior to zoning laws all sorts of facilities were built, and towns grew around them (5 minute commute! booyah!).

Now a days when we build plants they need to be VERY far from any populated area, and even the structures that are built within the plant boundaries (operator buildings, office complexes, showers, etc.) need to be blast rated or built outside of the pressure impacted zone.

Unfortunately the majority of these rules and regulations that dictate these safe practices are all dictated in blood (i.e. a large industrial accident occurs leading to a large loss of life or disruption, leading to regulation). What happens though is that plants built prior to the new regulation continue to be operated "as is".
 
Scout, there are many places these can be built very close to residential areas. Zoning laws are VERY different in various areas.
 
The factory bob, also keep in mind the factory is on a rail spur which is necessary for bulk delivery . Chuck the law for explosive material manufacturing is federal primacy. They have to follow federal law for safety distances with blasting agents. The distances are determined by two main criteria, quantity of material and whether storage is barricaded. There are minimum distance requirements from public roadways, inhabited structures rail lines, schools and hospitals. I can cite the regs from the orange book for you, it has a table for distances between all these things and by low or high explosive. I've had to deal with these regs to maintaon my federal he manufacturing license for the past 8 years.
 
New video


<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JTVUA-jJ11I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top