Major Explosion in West, Texas Last Night

[Content Note: Injury; death.]

There was an enormous explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, last night, which has left several people dead (there is no firm number on fatalities yet, although thankfully it looks to be far lower than original estimates of ~70 people) and hundreds of people injured, some seriously. Dozens of homes and business in the small town have also been damaged or destroyed by the explosion.

Right now, it does not appear to be anything but a terrible accident that began with a fire in the plant, followed by an explosion as the volunteer firefighters were working to extinguish the blaze.

And by "accident," I mean distinct from a deliberate action designed to cause harm—although I want to make clear that the investigation has only begun and has nothing has been officially ruled out at this time. It may be that it was not a deliberate action, but attributable to bad safety practices, in which case "accident" isn't a totally apt word.

The point is: We don't know yet, but it isn't currently being treated as a deliberate action.

I am not going to post pictures of the explosion, and I want to warn readers that there is a video being widely posted of the explosion, which is extremely jarring and potentially triggering. (It's generally described as something like "Man catches explosion on video from his truck" or "Dad and kid witness explosion," but sometimes as innocuous as "Explosion caught on video.") Last night, at least, it was being posted all over the place without any kind of content warning, so please proceed with caution.

This is an unfathomably enormous tragedy for the town of West, Texas. So, so many people injured. So much of the town destroyed. It is thought that many of their volunteer fire department may have been lost. People left without jobs and homes. Fuck. I hurt for the town. I am so sorry.

I will post additional information as it becomes available. Please feel welcome and encouraged to share info in comments.

UPDATE 1: The Dallas Morning News reports:

At a 10 a.m. press briefing in West, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said [he] still couldn't update the number of the injured and wounded but said three to five emergency workers remain missing. The confirmed number of injured remains at 160, and "we're still sticking with the number five to 15" dead, Swanton said.

Emergency workers, including crews from Burleson, Fort Hood and Texas Task Force 1, are still searching for survivors of the blast that devastated much of West. Oncor employees are accompanying rescue workers to make sure they don't step on downed power lines, and workers are "shoring up some areas before they go in," Swanton said.

"It's a very slow, methodical search," he said.