Explosion in West, Texas

Not sure if the cloud is shopped but that's the West Sonic in the foreground.

 

The population of the town of West in 2600.

KXXV out of Waco is going with 60 dead, at least 200 injured, so 10 percent of the population has potentially been killed or hurt in this.

 

Per Wikipedia, West High has less than 500 students. And from what CNN's chopper showed, a football stadium with end zone seats and at least FCS-quality lights. Good old Texas.

As sick as it sounds, I hope it's just an accident. But this time of year, this close to Waco makes anyone wonder.

 

Indeed. "Near Waco" is one of those terms that is burned into my memory.

 

I just had a thought, with nothing to back it up, but it's a bit scary. After the bombing in Boston some people started talking about Waco and OKC before realizing those happened on April 19, not April 15. But what if we are seeing a series of events all week leading up to something huge on the 19th this Friday?

Like I said, it's just a thought that popped into my head and a fertilizer plant explosion is the kind of thing that could happen as a tragic accident, but after the marathon and the ricin letters if it is found this was done on purpose I'm going to start to get very worried.

 

FWIW, that football stadium might hold 1000 people at the most. It's not a palace by any stretch of the imagination.

And I'm going to guess that poor ventilation and repair work had something to do with this. I also suspect we'll find this place wasn't up to code.

 

I couldn't get Inky's video of the explosion to load, but that could be my connection.

From a friend's FB wall...this video is fairly intense because of the young boy's reaction:

 

AP reporting that the mayor of the town said that there had been a fire at the plant before the explosion.

 

April 17, 1947:

 

That looks like a longer version of the same video.

 

Death trap for firemen.

 

Holy mother of God. The shock wave on that fucker is unbelievable.

I don't know much about fire or fertilizer, but methinks a fire at a fertilizer plant would be extraordinarily dangerous because of the volatility of the fertilizer itself.

Remember it only took a truck full of fertilizer to blow up the Murrah Building in OKC. We're talking about an entire factory here.