12 Bodies Recovered After Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion, 200 Injured; Search Ongoing
Source: Associated Press
12 bodies recovered after Texas fertilizer plant explosion, 200 injured; search ongoing
By Associated Press, Published: April 18 | Updated: Friday, April 19, 10:24 AM
WEST, Texas The bodies of 12 people have been recovered after an enormous Texas fertilizer plant explosion that demolished surrounding neighborhoods for blocks and left about 200 other people injured, authorities said Friday.
Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jason Reyes said it was with a heavy heart that he confirmed 12 bodies had been pulled from the area of the plant explosion in West, about 20 miles north of Waco.
Fertilizer facility explodes in central Texas:?A massive explosion on Wednesday night at a fertilizer facility in West, Tex., 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. West is 20 miles north of Waco.
Even before investigators released a confirmed number of fatalities, the names of the dead were becoming known in the town of 2,800 and a small group of firefighters and other first responders who may have rushed toward the plant to battle a pre-explosion blaze was believed to be among them.
Reyes said he could not confirm Friday how many of those killed were first responders.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/crews-seek-survivors-bodies-after-texas-fertilizer-plant-explosion-death-toll-is-unclear/2013/04/18/48a0d26c-a891-11e2-9e1c-bb0fb0c2edd9_story.html
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)Loki
(3,825 posts)but people and their well-being have not and will not be a priority in Texas until it rids itself of the idea that business and the interests of big business are inviolate. A little or no regulation state is what helped cause this and Texas is the gold standard for it. I hope they sue the owner into oblivion and include all the state regulatory agencies that didn't do their jobs to protect these people.
karynnj
(59,475 posts)(or if the houses were first, it is even more disgusting that the plant was built there.)
- Picky, but it questions if the WP has any editors. The first paragraph says 12 bodies were found - then the third paragraph says between 5 and 15 were killed. Unless they are implying that some of the 12 died of other causes, this is just sloppy editing.
deurbano
(2,891 posts)I know there is a very big (and worthy) competing story... but this one involves more deaths and more injuries. Carnage that could have been prevented without taking away all our civil liberties. Easy lessons could be learned from this tragedy, but that's unlikely to happen, especially when there is so little coverage. (And all the wrong lessons are likely to be learned from the Boston tragedy... at least, in terms of a very aggrieved and vocal segment of our populace.)