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addendum: given we have just had adventures in terrible first-strike journalism, I'm going to put the fatality number in the "who even knows" category, and I'll hope it's just some panicked BS number and that the actual casualty rate is far lower.
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The apartments are nearly destroyed, the school is reportedly on fire, and there was a early report that the nursing home had collapsed and several people were pulled out.
The Dallas Morning News says that the plant itself reported that it had "no fire risk." Earlier this year the school was evacuated due to a fire at the plant: this is letter [pdf] they sent home at the time.
[ April 18, 2013, 04:10 AM: Message edited by: James Tiberius Kirk ]
Posts: 3617 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Why the hell would a fertilizer factory be allowed to be within a block of those buildings? Shouldn't there be a law or building codes or something, make it so there has to be at least ten or twenty miles distance to the nearest residential area.
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quote:Originally posted by Tittles: Why the hell would a fertilizer factory be allowed to be within a block of those buildings? Shouldn't there be a law or building codes or something, make it so there has to be at least ten or twenty miles distance to the nearest residential area.
The plant probably precedes the town around it. Normally it would be a NIMBY type of structure, but I imagine the land around it is pretty cheap.
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quote:“It was a small fire and then water got sprayed on the ammonium nitrate, and it exploded just like the Oklahoma City bomb,” said Jason Shelton, a clerk at the Czech Best Western Hotel in West. ...
“That whole side of town looks like a disaster,” Bill Manolakis said. “Who in their right mind sticks a damn plant next to houses?”
quote:Originally posted by Tittles: Why the hell would a fertilizer factory be allowed to be within a block of those buildings? Shouldn't there be a law or building codes or something, make it so there has to be at least ten or twenty miles distance to the nearest residential area.
The plant probably precedes the town around it. Normally it would be a NIMBY type of structure, but I imagine the land around it is pretty cheap.
The plant was about 60 years old. Given how notoriously terrible Texas is about zoning and sensible regulation, that's more than plenty enough time for the free market to inspire developers to crawl right up on and around it via the whims of people who decide that lower land value created by proximity to literally fifty four thousand pounds of anhydrous ammonia and fertilizer and some grain elevators means "whoa hey with real estate so dirt cheap here we can build here with lower overhead!"
It really is a bit of a freak accident. Anhydrous Ammonia isn't flammable and isn't an explosive (unlike ammonium nitrate). I'd normally associate a BLEVE with a flammable liquid like LPG, but even water can BLEVE if its heated enough in sealed pressure vessel. This isn't the first time the possibility of a BLEVE was not recognized and lead to a disaster but it's happened enough times now that it certainly should have been considered in the safety plans.
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quote:Originally posted by Tittles: Why the hell would a fertilizer factory be allowed to be within a block of those buildings? Shouldn't there be a law or building codes or something, make it so there has to be at least ten or twenty miles distance to the nearest residential area.
The plant probably precedes the town around it. Normally it would be a NIMBY type of structure, but I imagine the land around it is pretty cheap.
The plant was about 60 years old. Given how notoriously terrible Texas is about zoning and sensible regulation, that's more than plenty enough time for the free market to inspire developers to crawl right up on and around it via the whims of people who decide that lower land value created by proximity to literally fifty four thousand pounds of anhydrous ammonia and fertilizer and some grain elevators means "whoa hey with real estate so dirt cheap here we can build here with lower overhead!"
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Since this is right above the Boston thread, for a moment I read the title as "Holy crap! West, Texas, suffers massive fertilizer explosion."
Posts: 185 | Registered: Apr 2009
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Please don't lump all cities in Texas into the "too stupid to do the right thing" category, just because of one city's possible failure to follow sound urban planning principles. Most Texas cities take zoning seriously, especially the part about ensuring compatible adjoining land uses.
Other than Houston, which is famous for not having any local zoning regulations, all of the medium to large cities in Texas have strong zoning regulations, subject to the usual variable of local elected official idiocy (which is hardly a Texas-only problem).
A possible explanation here is that the factory was originally founded outside the city limits and certain land uses (such as at least one of the reported neighborhoods)developed around the factory with no municipal regulations in place.
Also, school districts in Texas have been held to have the right to place their schools wherever they deem suitable, regardless of city zoning regulations. The rationale by the Texas Supreme Court (in 1973) was that school boards, being elected officials of co-equal stature with city council members, have the right to determine where to put their buildings. The Court assumed, perhaps optimistically, that these local elected school officials would have the same concerns for health and safety as city officials, and would not place a school next to an incompatible land use.
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quote:Originally posted by Gilnar: Please don't lump all cities in Texas into the "too stupid to do the right thing" category, just because of one city's possible failure to follow sound urban planning principles. Most Texas cities take zoning seriously, especially the part about ensuring compatible adjoining land uses.
Goes on to mention that Texas allows schools to be built wherever the district feels like, and that the city was probably built up around the factory, which for some reason, even though it produces the same result as placing a factory in among a developed area, makes it ok.
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Not that my lovely state has a great track record for this sort of thing, but West was a tiny tiny town with a population of about 2500. There were no real "zones" to speak of because the town was miniscule. Just the plant (which was built sometime in the 50's or 60's), the houses built for the employees of the plant and their families, and the schools for their children. One retirement home for their elderly. One little volunteer fire department that didn't know doodly squat about how to deal with a fire involving ammonium nitrate. Very sad.
It was a town notable for being composed mostly of Czech immigrants and their descendants and was an awesome place to get kolaches and pastries if you were passing through from Waco to Dallas. They also had an annual celebration of Czech culture called Westfest that I attended once in my youth. Oh, and Willie Nelson used to own a house there before the IRS seized a lot of his assets.
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Everyone familiar with the area who has spoken about it has mentioned the kolaches. They must be amazing.
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