I prey that it wasn't preventable . Hope they bring someone to account for it . It's no small industrial accident

I'm more upset at who built a town a couple hundred feet away from a fertilizer plant that can level the town. At least most places have the sense to put a fireworks factory a couple miles away, the same goes for any industrial plant that has large explosive potential when things go really wrong.

From the reports I have seen, the fertilizer plant was built many years ago in open fields, well away from the town. Building well after the plant was there crept towards the plant. So, it is to do with the zoning laws and allowing building where it should have been stopped.

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

I prey that it wasn't preventable . Hope they bring someone to account for it . It's no small industrial accident

I'm more upset at who built a town a couple hundred feet away from a fertilizer plant that can level the town. At least most places have the sense to put a fireworks factory a couple miles away, the same goes for any industrial plant that has large explosive potential when things go really wrong.

From the reports I have seen, the fertilizer plant was built many years ago in open fields, well away from the town. Building well after the plant was there crept towards the plant. So, it is to do with the zoning laws and allowing building where it should have been stopped.

Or in this case, the complete lack of zoning laws or any sense, just profit.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I prey that it wasn't preventable . Hope they bring someone to account for it . It's no small industrial accident

I'm more upset at who built a town a couple hundred feet away from a fertilizer plant that can level the town. At least most places have the sense to put a fireworks factory a couple miles away, the same goes for any industrial plant that has large explosive potential when things go really wrong.

As to preventable, we may never know who opened the wrong valve, or flipped the wrong switch, or what welder let some sparks get away. You can have all the safety rules on the planet, but it is humans doing the work: To err is human. At least we know no one intended to blow up the plant.

I agree with buidling to close to a plant like that. Wasnt it Corpus Christi back in WW2 that had a ship blow up at the docks loaded with fertilizer? You would think that lesson would have sunk home. (no pun intended )

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Old James

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/20/west-fertilizer-company_n_3121110.html

By Joshua Schneyer, Ryan McNeill and Janet Roberts

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - The fertilizer plant that exploded on Wednesday, obliterating part of a small Texas town and killing at least 14 people, had last year been storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Yet a person familiar with DHS operations said the company that owns the plant, West Fertilizer, did not tell the agency about the potentially explosive fertilizer as it is required to do, leaving one of the principal regulators of ammonium nitrate - which can also be used in bomb making - unaware of any danger there.

Fertilizer plants and depots must report to the DHS when they hold 400 lb (180 kg) or more of the substance. Filings this year with the Texas Department of State Health Services, which weren't shared with DHS, show the plant had 270 tons of it on hand last year.

270 tons, yes, that will generate a mushroom cloud. and is roughly equivalent to the smallest tactical nukes.

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I prey that it wasn't preventable . Hope they bring someone to account for it . It's no small industrial accident

I'm more upset at who built a town a couple hundred feet away from a fertilizer plant that can level the town. At least most places have the sense to put a fireworks factory a couple miles away, the same goes for any industrial plant that has large explosive potential when things go really wrong.

As to preventable, we may never know who opened the wrong valve, or flipped the wrong switch, or what welder let some sparks get away. You can have all the safety rules on the planet, but it is humans doing the work: To err is human. At least we know no one intended to blow up the plant.

I agree with building to close to a plant like that. Was it Corpus Christi back in WW2 that had a ship blow up at the docks loaded with fertilizer? You would think that lesson would have sunk home. (no pun intended )

It was in 1947 according to the wiki on the subject, 581 people died according to the record(405 were identified and 63 have never been identified. These were placed in a memorial cemetery in the north part of Texas City near Moses Lake. A remaining 113 people were classified as missing, for no identifiable parts were ever found. This figure includes firefighters who were aboard Grandcamp when it exploded. Speculation says that there were 100's more killed, just uncounted), it's also mentioned that this info could be an undercount and people there at the time didn't count everybody as poisonous racism was alive and well. Texas hasn't learned much since then, maybe one of these days Texans will have had enough and demand better, until then people will rebuild and bury the dead.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

No different that those who keep building houses at the edge of cliffs where previous owner's homes have slid off into the ocean.

And the rebuilds have been, in many cases, at taxpayer expense.

Idiocy.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster