Scores of people are injured and an unknown number are dead after a huge explosion at a fertiliser plant near Waco in the US state of Texas. Dozens of homes and buildings have been destroyed, and several are still on fire, after the West Fertilizer plant exploded at about 19:50 (00:50 GMT).

Emergency services officials said ammonia may have caused the explosion. It has been reported the company had 54,000lbs (20 tonnes) of anhydrous ammonia on site.

I can't believe how close the plant was to the town; were they insane?

I've seen the craters left by fertiliser bombs that were only a few hundred lbs worth, and those were feckin' wide and deep

I never understood such planning. Though many communities are desperate for work, so will allow dangerous plants to be built within residential areas.


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It is also often the other way round. In Osnabrück I worked for a plastic manufacturer (raw material cellulose plastic, not finished products) and the factory was built outside the city limits in the 19th Century, now it is much nearer the town centre than the outskirts! They had to move, because the city removed their licence to manufacture within the city.

Likewise, where I now work was an old slaughter house. In the 90s, the town decided it had expanded so much around the slaughter house, that they didn't want thousands of pigs transported through the middle of a residential district and slaughtered there... So it was converted into an office specialising in consultancy to the pig industry.

Americans have always had lax safety standards as high ones cost money. Their oil industry is a prime example.