‘Like a nuclear bomb’: DEADLY BLAST devastates Texas
The full extent of the devastation will have to wait until the light
of day Thursday. But residents of the small Texas town of West already
know what to expect.
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The devastating fire in Texas. CNN |
“There are a lot of people that got hurt,” West Mayor Tommy Muska
forewarned Wednesday night. “There are a lot of people that will not be
here tomorrow.”
A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant on the edge of the town
killed an estimated five to 15 people, wounded more than 160, leveled
dozens of homes and prompted authorities to evacuate half their
community of 2,800.
“It was like a nuclear bomb went off,” Muska said. “Big old mushroom
cloud.” The Wednesday night blast shook houses 50 miles away and
measured as a 2.1-magnitude seismic event, according to the United
States Geological Survey.
Officials offered differing figures for the death toll, with Sgt.
William Patrick Swanton of the nearby Waco Police Department saying
between five and 15 people had died.
But fire officials fear that the number of casualties could rise as
high as 60 to 70 dead, said Dr. George Smith, the emergency management
system director of the city.
“That’s a really rough number, I’m getting that figure from
firefighters, we don’t know yet,” he said. “We have two EMS personnel
that are dead for sure, and there may be three firefighters that are
dead.”
Early Thursday morning, firefighters painstakingly combed through
houses, many reduced to rubble.
“(It’s) massive -- just like Iraq. Just like the Murrah (Federal)
Building in Oklahoma City,” said D.L. Wilson of the Texas public safety
department. What caused the explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. was not
immediately known. But its location -- next to an apartment complex, a
nursing home and a middle school -- did not help matters.
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