Fertilizer plant explodes near Waco, Texas - Must see! (1 Viewer)

[SlyPokerDog]

Fertilizer plant explodes near Waco, Texas, causing numerous injuries

WEST, Texas — A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety says an unknown number of people were killed in a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco. D.L. Wilson says it will be some time before authorities know the full extent of the loss of life and damage caused by Wednesday night’s blast at the plant in West, about 20 miles north of Waco.


The explosion at West Fertilizer happened shortly before 8 p.m. and damaged buildings for blocks in every direction.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...34de68-a7cd-11e2-9e1c-bb0fb0c2edd9_story.html



This video is insane!




[video=youtube;ROrpKx3aIjA]

 

[KeepOnRollin]

That video is epic! Sorry for any loss of life though.

 

[PapaG]

So, is the kid deaf now? That sucks. I mean, who would expect that sort of explosion from that far away?

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

crazy

 

[SlyPokerDog]

So, is the kid deaf now? That sucks. I mean, who would expect that sort of explosion from that far away?

Maybe blown eardrums. I wouldn't think any deafness would be permanent.

 

[PapaG]

The comments at Youtube, and most other sites for any news story, make me think we have no shot as a country. It's depressing...

 

[Natebishop3]

So, is the kid deaf now? That sucks. I mean, who would expect that sort of explosion from that far away?

Wasn't it a fertilizer bomb that blew up the OKC building? And that was only enough to fit in the back of a uhaul truck. This was an entire factory.

 

[PapaG]

Coming out now that 60-70 are dead at and around the plant, with another 100 injured.

How does a fertilizer plant catch on fire? That should be priority one for OSHA in order of inspecting facilities.

 

[Natebishop3]

Coming out now that 60-70 are dead at and around the plant, with another 100 injured.

How does a fertilizer plant catch on fire? That should be priority one for OSHA in order of inspecting facilities.

Or, more importantly, how the hell does a fertilizer plant happen to be that close to an apartment complex and school???

This is another video that's been uploaded.

[video=youtube;tLWw24OQFdQ]

And a map posted on Reddit of the area. They should NOT let buildings be this close to a factory that has the potential to go MOAB.

 

[Further]

Man, this has been a shitty news week. Bombing, ricin, bum burning man, and now this.

I need a break from reality. I'm taking Friday off, going down to Eugene with a good friend, smoke a ton of weed, drink a bit, and go see Yonder Mountain String Band two nights in a row. Hike during the daytime, fat juicy steaks for dinner. And hopefully no new tragic stories.

 

[Mamba]

Projecting 60-70 deaths, and I think there may be more once the area is contained enough to thoroughly explore. What a shitty week and what a scary explosion. Reports are that it registered as a 2.1 earthquake and could be felt 100 miles away in Dallas. That is just insane.

 

[Natebishop3]

Projecting 60-70 deaths, and I think there may be more once the area is contained enough to thoroughly explore. What a shitty week and what a scary explosion. Reports are that it registered as a 2.1 earthquake and could be felt 100 miles away in Dallas. That is just insane.

I can't even imagine what this will do to a small town like that.

 

[Natebishop3]

What's left of the apartments across from the plant.

 

[Mamba]

The dates during this week have so much tragic history... the Waco siege, the OKC bombing, columbine, Boston marathon bombing, now this. I know I'm missing an event or two...just eery how many tragic events have happened around this time.

 

[BrianFromWA]

VA Tech.

 

[Natebishop3]

Hey Brian how do you think this would compare to the explosion from a MOAB?

 

[BrianFromWA]

I haven't seen much of this (I'll look it up in the most recent news), but a Fuel-Air explosive bomb (similar to MOAB or Russian ATBIP) is generally either detonated from altitude or in conjuction with a bunker-buster. While it's not usually surface-detonated, if it is employed that way you get the same type of "mushroom cloud" you would from what most think of in a nuclear detonation. That's from the intense heat generated by the blast rising up, taking particulate with it, and then dissipating outward as it cools. The blast radius from a nuclear device (of a size that would probably be employed ballistically) is much higher, while a "tactical" nuclear device would be on the same order of magnitude as a normal MOAB or ATBIP.

Tactical nuclear weapons (which are being phased out in favor of non-nuclear FAEs/MOABs/dial-a-yield B61 nuclear bombs) are generally in the tens-of-kilotons range of yield, which is similar to the MOABs and FAEs. You obviously don't get "nuclear" fallout from MOABs/FAEs, but that doesn't mean that the secondary blast effects aren't dangerous for the initial survivors. You won't get EMP from a non-nuclear device (though you can have EMP bombs on a much smaller scale--chemical munitions can't recreate the energy of a nuclear blast for anything close to the same weapons weight), but you still have a blast wave, secondary superheating, and the "non-nuclear fallout" that can still be harmful long-term.

Based on the initial reporting, some are saying that it looks like a "yield" of about 1-3 kilotons (Hiroshima, for instance, was ~15 kT and Nagasaki 22kT). I don't know about that. I've read that there was a 2.1 earthquake that registered (100x smaller than the "Beast Mode" Seattle earthquake and barely recognizable). If there was a ground-detonated bomb that went off that was 1-3kT, I'd expect a higher reading, but I'm not a geologist. (North Korea's nuclear tests registered 4.3 for a 1kT test, 4.7 for a 4-7kT test and 5.1 for a 10kT test--open source). For those saying that it could've been a tactical nuke, there wouldn't be electrical power anywhere near Waco if that was the case. If it was a "dirty bomb", you wouldn't have had a fission yield but you'd have significant evidence of irradiated fallout. So that's not the case, afaik. If it was a MOAB, it would be roughly an order of magnitude higher yield than what's being reported/guessed about, with a concomitant blast radius increase (which is generally proportional to the square root of the size increase). So if you believe that this was a 1kT yield and blew up houses a few hundred feet away, a MOAB would have blown up houses maybe 1000 feet away and incinerated the apartment complex they're showing pictures of.

I'm not sure if I answered your question...?

 

[Haakzilla]

The dates during this week have so much tragic history... the Waco siege, the OKC bombing, columbine, Boston marathon bombing, now this. I know I'm missing an event or two...just eery how many tragic events have happened around this time.

...Hitlers birthday, etc!

 

[Denny Crane]

What's left of the apartments across from the plant.

They were saying on the news overnight that the blast leveled 5-10 square blocks. Hundreds of homes and apartment buildings. All looking like that picture.

 

[BrianFromWA]

while that's horrible, this is what 15kT does...to much more than a 2-3 block radius

 

[oldmangrouch]

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lyt01

Speaking of tragic events in April....in Texas no less!

 

[THE HCP]

I haven't seen much of this (I'll look it up in the most recent news), but a Fuel-Air explosive bomb (similar to MOAB or Russian ATBIP) is generally either detonated from altitude or in conjuction with a bunker-buster. While it's not usually surface-detonated, if it is employed that way you get the same type of "mushroom cloud" you would from what most think of in a nuclear detonation. That's from the intense heat generated by the blast rising up, taking particulate with it, and then dissipating outward as it cools. The blast radius from a nuclear device (of a size that would probably be employed ballistically) is much higher, while a "tactical" nuclear device would be on the same order of magnitude as a normal MOAB or ATBIP.

Tactical nuclear weapons (which are being phased out in favor of non-nuclear FAEs/MOABs/dial-a-yield B61 nuclear bombs) are generally in the tens-of-kilotons range of yield, which is similar to the MOABs and FAEs. You obviously don't get "nuclear" fallout from MOABs/FAEs, but that doesn't mean that the secondary blast effects aren't dangerous for the initial survivors. You won't get EMP from a non-nuclear device (though you can have EMP bombs on a much smaller scale--chemical munitions can't recreate the energy of a nuclear blast for anything close to the same weapons weight), but you still have a blast wave, secondary superheating, and the "non-nuclear fallout" that can still be harmful long-term.

Based on the initial reporting, some are saying that it looks like a "yield" of about 1-3 kilotons (Hiroshima, for instance, was ~15 kT and Nagasaki 22kT). I don't know about that. I've read that there was a 2.1 earthquake that registered (100x smaller than the "Beast Mode" Seattle earthquake and barely recognizable). If there was a ground-detonated bomb that went off that was 1-3kT, I'd expect a higher reading, but I'm not a geologist. (North Korea's nuclear tests registered 4.3 for a 1kT test, 4.7 for a 4-7kT test and 5.1 for a 10kT test--open source). For those saying that it could've been a tactical nuke, there wouldn't be electrical power anywhere near Waco if that was the case. If it was a "dirty bomb", you wouldn't have had a fission yield but you'd have significant evidence of irradiated fallout. So that's not the case, afaik. If it was a MOAB, it would be roughly an order of magnitude higher yield than what's being reported/guessed about, with a concomitant blast radius increase (which is generally proportional to the square root of the size increase). So if you believe that this was a 1kT yield and blew up houses a few hundred feet away, a MOAB would have blown up houses maybe 1000 feet away and incinerated the apartment complex they're showing pictures of.

I'm not sure if I answered your question...?

Come on man...... I JUST posted the same thing! Read the whole thread first, THAN post!


Sent from HCPs Baller-Ass iPhone 5...FAMS!

 

[magnifier661]

It's sad that there is all this talk about this incident; yet nothing about the Boston bomb!

 

[Denny Crane]

HCP killed the thread. Like usual.

 

[magnifier661]

HCP killed the thread. Like usual.

Yeah it's a norm.

 

[jlprk]

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lyt01

Speaking of tragic events in April....in Texas no less!

So in a much more fatal 1947 Texas fertilizer explosion, the number of dead was 576 plus many unrecorded.

It's sad that there is all this talk about this incident; yet nothing about the Boston bomb!

That was only 3 dead. This is bigger.

Man, this has been a shitty news week. Bombing, ricin, bum burning man, and now this.

I need a break from reality. I'm taking Friday off, going down to Eugene with a good friend, smoke a ton of weed, drink a bit, and go see Yonder Mountain String Band two nights in a row. Hike during the daytime, fat juicy steaks for dinner. And hopefully no new tragic stories.

We got the #10 pick!

 

[oldmangrouch]

So in a much more fatal 1947 Texas fertilizer explosion, the number of dead was 576 plus many unrecorded.



That was only 3 dead. This is bigger.



We got the #10 pick!

Events like industrial accidents and mine disasters just don't resonate with the average person the way horrible crimes do.

 

[Denny Crane]

Most of what I've seen of the plant explosion coverage has been arial footage of the plant on fire. I think until they actually get in and dig through the bubble and take lots of photos of that, people will realize how massive this thing was. A terrible tragedy. A whole town blown off the map, basically.

 

[jlprk]

Events like industrial accidents and mine disasters just don't resonate with the average person the way horrible crimes do.

Rich conservatives want to fight wars. Democrats want to improve the lot of the worker. If unions were stronger, industrial accidents would be fewer and less fatal.

 

[Mediocre Man]

So, is the kid deaf now? That sucks. I mean, who would expect that sort of explosion from that far away?

The little girl is ok. She has regained her hearing.