A massive explosion has rocked a fertiliser plant in Texas, and it is understood that 70 people have been killed AND HUNDREDS INJURED.
• Firefighters had been called to the plant in West, about 20 miles north of Waco, and were on scene tackling a fire when the explosion occurred.
• The blast could be heard 45 miles away, and there are reports of damaged buildings across a wide area.
‘Fire officials fear that the number of casualties could rise as high as 60 to 70 dead,’ said West Emergency Medical Services director Dr George Smith
.
‘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,’ he said.
The fire broke out at the plant earlier on Wednesday evening and erupted into a huge explosion while firefighters were battling the flames.
Dozens of emergency vehicles amassed at the scene in the hours after the blast, as fires continued to smolder in the ruins of the plant and in several surrounding buildings.
Some 172 people have been hospitalized, according to ABC, 24 people in a critical state and 38 in a serious condition.
Blast: According to eyewitnesses firefighters were attending the blaze when there was a sudden explosion – three firefighters are dead according to authorities
Blaze: The blast ripped through West Fertilizer at 7.50pm and fires continue to burn at the scene
Inferno: A towering plume of smoke is caught on camera by a resident in West, Texas following the explosion this evening
An emergency worker walks through just one of dozens of buildings left badly damaged by the blast. (AP)
Emergency workers evacuate elderly residents from a damaged nursing home near the scene of the blast. (AP)
community that we call home. #westtx
Dozens Killed, Hundreds Injured In Fertilizer Plant Explosion
Emergency workers evacuate elderly residents from a damaged nursing home near the scene of the blast. (AP)
WACO (CBSDFW.COM) – A fertilizer plant explosion in the town of West, north of Waco, has killed as many as 70 people and injured hundreds. However, no official numbers have been released.
Meanwhile, the residents of the town of 2,700 are being asked to evacuate due to ammonia fumes after the explosion of West Fertilizer. The plant is located at 1471 Jerry Mashek Drive, just off Interstate-35. School buses and ambulances are being used to evacuate residents from the area.
Firefighters had been called to the plant to battle a small fire around 7 p.m. Crews were working to bring the blaze under control when the explosion happened around 7:50 p.m. Officials have said firefighters are among the missing.
This was the devastating scene in Texas after a giant blast ripped through a fertiliser plant leaving up to 70 feared dead and more than 100 injured. The blast left the town of West, 20 miles north of Waco, ‘like a warzone’, and sent a towering plume of toxic smoke into the sky threatening thousands with burns and suffocation. Dozens of homes and buildings have been destroyed and many people are feared trapped after the horrific blast next to an old peoples’ home and school at 7.50pm local time, just before 1am in Britain. The full extent of the loss of life and damage is still being calculated. Local residents, some more than a mile away, reported windows being blown out and hearing an explosion that sounded ‘like a nuclear bomb’. All gas supplies to the area have been stopped.
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