West, Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion

[Arctickat]

EMS Personnel Reported Killed in Texas Fertilizer Plant Blast

CNN was reporting Wednesday night that rescue officials fear the number of casualties could rise as high as 60 to 70 dead.

"That's a really rough number, I'm getting that figure from firefighters, we don't know yet," Dr. George Smith, the emergency management system director of the city of West, told CNN.

"We have two EMS personnel that are dead for sure, and there may be three firefighters that are dead."

http://www.emsworld.com/news/10923448/ems-personnel-reported-killed-in-texas-fertilizer-plant-blast

[scubanurse]

Tragic. I've driven through that town on my way north before. I really hope they recover the victims soon and the families and town can begin to heal.

[chbare]

Thoughts go out to all involved. A medic who I flew with back in the day lives there with his wife and child. Apparently, their house was very close and sustained significant damage but all made it out safely.

[Chief1C]

Doesn't sound too good on the status of better than half of their firefighters. Terrible shame, you just can't replace good people over night.

[ERDoc]

CNN just said that there were 5 volley FFs and 4 emergency responders (which I am assuming is there word for EMS). Thoughts and best wishes go out to all of those that are affected.

[paramedicmike]

That was a pretty impressive explosion. There was one video in particular I saw that caught it pretty well.

Condolences to family, friends and coworkers of those affected.

[spenac]

Tragic loss of life. Hopefully some good will come from their loss in others learning from this event.

[island emt]

RIP for all those killed, their volunteer fire department took a big hit.

Don't build a town around a factory that can explode

[rat115]

Sad happening. Unfortunately, many small towns are built around the elevators. When any of those go, they make a big mess of more than just that property.

Prayers with everyone touched by this happening.

[Chief1C]

It's important to use these events as reminders. There's probably a lot of fellow rural folks on here. This could happen anywhere, maybe not on such a large scale, but the potential is there if you look around. We're trained to observe stuff. So, do that, look at what is in your backyard. Farms? Ammonium Nitrate and Anhydrous Ammonia. Probably every large farm, or ranch has some of this stuff. Some have excessive amounts. I've turned out to a lot of barn fires in the past sixteen years. Anyone that has been to one either with EMS, or as a firefighter knows that you're probably going to be there a while. The longest I recall, we were on scene over 25 hours. Aside from the attack being a royal PITA, the overhaul, mop up; and finding a tractor big enough to get the pumper, which is beached frame deep at nearest pond; they're exhausting, massive, dangerous fires. Plants have MSDS lists, and sometimes the fire dept. has one.. Barns don't. You have no idea wtf farmer john has stored in there. Propane heating, fertilizers, pesticides, paint, cleaning products... So, while you're trying to be a safe firefighter, and a good neighbor by getting the animals out.. There could be a cocktail that could level a country block brewing above your head.

Typically, we'll do any animal rescues first, if safe; before we start lobbing hundreds of thousands of gallons of water into the flaming mass. B/c The fertilizers usually react extremely violently when they're burning and you apply water. There is no way in hell ANY fire company, short of an airport carries enough dry chemical; and you'd need a truck load of foam. I can't think of anyone locally that carries more than five, 5gal. pails. Shit goes quick when you're flowing high pressure and and using an eductor. And anyone with fire training knows that if you want good foam cover with Class A; you're going to have to be closer, than say if you were just spraying a light mix with a hand line. We have a really good foam system, with all these ethanol cars and such; and if you want a blanket to pile up, you're gonna need to be at least with in 50'. Too close if something explodes.

IMO, viewing the video, it looking like a tank BLEVE. But it could have been a combination of water getting somewhere it shouldn't have. Who would expect that to happen? They were probably trying to cool the tanks, or getting set up to do that, when... That's just something you can't plan for; they were evacuating people, and even though a lot of people were injured; not a lot of civilians were killed. They did their job, and they did it well, unfortunately, they didn't get to go home after it was done. We lowered our station flag in honor of them, hard not to choke up a bit; even a thousand miles apart, we're right beside them.