As many as 15 are dead and more than 160 injured after a West, Texas fertilizer plant exploded.
WaPo (“Fertilizer plant explosion injures at least 160 in central Texas; 5 to 15 feared dead“):
A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in central Texas Wednesday night left more than 160 people wounded and killed an estimated five to 15 people, officials said, likely including firefighters who had been battling the blaze at the factory that triggered the explosion.
Images of the gargantuan fireball that devastated the tiny town of West, 20 miles north of Waco, were particularly jarring, coming just two days after a bombing that killed three people and injured scores of others at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
Authorities emphasized that the estimate of how many people may have been killed in the blast are preliminary, because rescue crews have yet to access the most damaged areas of the West Fertilizer plant and the surrounding town.
“There are homes leveled. There are businesses leveled,” Waco Police Sgt. Patrick Swanton said in a news briefing early Thursday. “There is massive devastation in the downtown West business area.”
West Mayor Tommy Muska said 50 to 60 homes within a five block radius of the factory were heavily damaged. West Rest Haven Nursing Home was being evacuated at the time of the blast because of the facility’s proximity to the fire; its residents have all been brought to a safe location, Muska said.
I’m not sure why the Boston Marathon blast is referenced here. There is as of yet zero evidence that this was anything other than an accident and a blast that kills numerous people and destroys homes is always going to be jarring. Indeed, coming so close to the Boston incident would if anything create a psychological overload; desensitization, not extra drama, is the more likely impact.
