# Texas Fertilizer Plant Blast **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 18, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000 "2013-04-18T02:48:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/21 "2013-04-18T05:03:34Z")
> [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](#): > > If the building was on fire, and they knew it contained highly explosive material, shouldn’t the nearby residents have been evacuated? And if it’s true police and firefighters were at the scene, shouldn’t they have gotten far away too? The Dallas Morning News [says](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20130417-live-video-fertilizer-plant-explosion-injures-dozens-in-west-near-waco1.ece) that the whole town is now being evacuated. I imagine that’s got to be a chaotic process under these conditions. There may not have been time to do it before the explosion, and people may have thought that sheltering in place was the safer option if an explosion was imminent. > [@D-bear](#): > > I thought these people wanted to succeed from the Union? I’m pretty sure after the election results came out last November, they all wanted to be separated from the USA. It’s horrible that this happened, but this has to be indicative of what a Red-State mentality brings on it’s population… Really? This is what your mind puts together at a time like this? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/22 "2013-04-18T05:14:08Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > :rolleyes: Yes there’s a tiny band of morons who want to secede but they are a few thousand people at best, hardly indicative of a “Red State mentality” Not to mention that we don’t know even if the explosion is deliberate or not much less whose behind it. I think it’s just an industrial accident. The deliberate part may be failure to follow regulations or ignore obvious dangers, but it seems very unlikely someone would start a fire there in order to trigger an explosion. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/23 "2013-04-18T05:16:05Z")
This isn’t unusual. Over the past thirty years I recall other accidents at fertilizer plants. This one seems bigger and more lethal than most. Processing that material is dangerous work. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/24 "2013-04-18T05:16:47Z")
Who owns the plant? ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/25 "2013-04-18T05:18:59Z")
[Scary YouTube video of the explosion.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROrpKx3aIjA&feature=player_embedded) This man and his daughter were videoing the already sizeable fire when the explosion happens during the recording. It was huge and terrifying, the girl repeats she can’t hear anything - and they were FAR from the plant. I’m glad they seem ultimately OK. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/26 "2013-04-18T05:26:08Z")
I have been through that town many times during my college years and growing up. I remember some very good kolaches being made locally and we would stop when we were driving through and load up. This is a very small town and may very well be destroyed from what I can see. This is really shaping up to be a crappy week. And we are only at Wednesday. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/27 "2013-04-18T05:27:50Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > [Scary YouTube video of the explosion.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROrpKx3aIjA&feature=player_embedded) This man and his daughter were videoing the already sizeable fire when the explosion happens during the recording. It was huge and terrifying, the girl repeats she can’t hear anything - and they were FAR from the plant. I’m glad they seem ultimately OK. Dur. It’s the same video linked in the Yahoo article in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/28 "2013-04-18T05:32:05Z")
I don’t want to seem callous but having lived in Houston chemical plant fires/blasts were common, I can in fact clearly remember two REALLY bad ones. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/29 "2013-04-18T05:54:50Z")
The one in France is about the worst I can recall. These plants require very strict safety measures and constant inspections. Accidents still happen because of human or mechanical error. > [@](#): > > In 2001, an explosion at a chemical plant killed 31 people and injured more than 2,000 in Toulouse, France. The blast occurred in a hangar containing 300 tons of ammonium nitrate, which can be used for both fertilizer and explosives. > > Read more: [http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/18/numerous-injuries-reported-in-large-explosion-at-texas-fertilizer-plant/#ixzz2Qn8ZSR8i](http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/18/numerous-injuries-reported-in-large-explosion-at-texas-fertilizer-plant/#ixzz2Qn8ZSR8i) ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/30 "2013-04-18T05:59:13Z")
> [@D-bear](#): > > I thought these people wanted to succeed from the Union? I’m pretty sure after the election results came out last November, they all wanted to be separated from the USA. It’s horrible that this happened, but this has to be indicative of what a Red-State mentality brings on it’s population… Nice, 60 people die and somehow you managed to turn it into a childish political rant. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/31 "2013-04-18T06:54:03Z")
The USGS picked up this explosion as a 2.1 on the Richter scale. That is only a measure of ground motion, and the air motion was much worse. For comparison sake, the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building registered a 3.0 on the Richter scale. On the personal side… Come morning I’ll have to find out if my 87 year old grandmother, a retired nurse living in Waco, has gone to help at her old hospital. It has had more than 100 patients already. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/32 "2013-04-18T09:18:44Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Yes, [but who could have guessed ammonia was explosive](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster)? I was coming in with the exact same link. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/33 "2013-04-18T10:08:43Z")
My first thought when I heard this news this morning was “Will shit please stop blowing up”. I don’t care whether it’s deliberate or, as I suspect in this case, a horrible accident. Shit needs to stop exploding. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/34 "2013-04-18T10:35:00Z")
My second thought, having seen the video, was “That makes the bombs in Boston look like party poppers.” And I don’t mean to belittle Monday’s events by saying that. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/35 "2013-04-18T10:45:07Z")
The shits gonna hit the fan once the sun comes up. I dread seeing the damage thats been done. It sounds like it’ll be really bad. Sunrise is only 1 1/2 hours away. About 7:15 Central and the news helicopters can start filming. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/36 "2013-04-18T11:16:11Z")
I used to live just a few miles away from that plant. It’s already a fairly economically-depressed area; I can’t even imagine what this will do to West. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/37 "2013-04-18T11:51:31Z")
> [@D-bear](#): > > I thought these people wanted to succeed from the Union? I’m pretty sure after the election results came out last November, they all wanted to be separated from the USA. It’s horrible that this happened, but this has to be indicative of what a Red-State mentality brings on it’s population… **D-bear** , just as political jabs were out of place in the MPSIMS thread about Boston, they’re out of place here. If you want to talk politics, go to GD, Elections, or the Pit – but don’t do it here. **twickster** , MPSIMS moderator ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/38 "2013-04-18T13:22:04Z")
The news today says that authorities have confirmed 5 to 15 people killed, but the toll could rise. Technically, a range like that doesn’t exactly sound like “confirmation,” but maybe there are five confirmed dead and another ten known to be missing. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/39 "2013-04-18T14:33:02Z")
Anhydrous ammonia is pure NH3 that’s been produced by chemical synthesis. Ammonia forms an azeotrope with water- that is, pure NH3 cannot be isolated by distillation and will spontaneously absorb water it’s exposed to. Many chemical reactions involving ammonia require it be anhydrous. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000/40 "2013-04-18T14:40:49Z")
An attack on the West! The tinfoil army are going to have a ball with this one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-fertilizer-plant-blast/656000.md?page=3)