'Nuclear bomb' blast sent fireball mushroom cloud into night sky
Wreckage ... a burned-out truck amid the devastation
SCORES of people have been injured with many feared dead after a devastating explosion at a fertiliser plant in Texas.
The blast – which shook the ground with the strength of a small earthquake – “totally decimated” a four-block area around the site.
It was compared to a nuclear bomb as a huge fireball and mushroom cloud ballooned into the night sky and rained burning embers, shrapnel and debris onto the town below.
Police are now treating the plant’s smouldering wreckage as a crime scene – and put early fatality estimates at five to 15 people.
Carnage ... person looks on as emergency workers fight a house fire after a nearby fertiliser plant exploded
AP
At least 160 people have been injured, with local media reporting 24 in a critical state and 38 in a serious condition.
Dozens of homes and buildings were destroyed and several are still ablaze after the powerful explosion in West – a small town about 80 miles south of Dallas – at around 8pm local time.
McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said: “It’s a lot of devastation. I’ve never seen anything like this.
“It looks like a war zone with all the debris."
The fire broke out at the plant earlier yesterday evening before erupting into a huge explosion while firefighters were dousing the flames.
Huge blast .... explosion happened at Texas fertiliser plant
'Like a nuclear bomb' ... witnesses described moment huge blast shook the ground
Fire crews are now desperately battling to rescue people still thought to be trapped in their homes - while three to five firefighters who were tackling the initial blaze are reported missing.
Rescue efforts have been hampered due to hazardous chemicals in the air following the explosion. First responders were seen wearing respirators to protect themselves.
Residents have been told to remain indoors because of the threat of new explosions or toxic leaks of ammonia from the plant's ruins.
Shocking footage of the blast - captured by a local parent who was trying to film the earlier fire at the factory - shows the exact moment the plant blew up with cataclysmic force.
There was no immediate official word on what sparked the explosion as emergency personnel assisted victims and doused the flames.
Rubble ... firefighters attempt to put out smouldering ruins of plant
Terror ... up to 15 people are feared dead, according to early estimates
West mayor Tommy Muska said a number of firefighters are unaccounted for, adding: "It's like a nuclear bomb went off."
Muska, who is also a volunteer firefighter, said the town’s department went to the plant to fight a fire about 6.30pm.
He told how the blast that later followed knocked off his fire helmet and blew out the doors and windows of his home nearby.
Map ... West is just 20 miles north of Waco
The main fire was under control by 11pm, according to Muska - but residents have been urged to remain indoors amid concerns about the wind changing as clouds of hazardous gases linger in the air
The blast produced ground motion equivalent to that of a magnitude 2.1 earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey.
West City Council member Al Vanek said a four-block area around the explosion was "totally decimated".
Among the damaged buildings were what appeared to be a housing complex with a collapsed roof, a nearby school and the West Rest Haven Nursing Home, from where 133 elderly residents, some in wheelchairs, were evacuated.
A survivor with cuts and bloody injuries on his face described apocalyptic scenes as the roof fell in: "The windows came in on me, the roof came in on me, the ceiling came in and I worked my way out to go get some more help."
In the hours after the blast, many of the town’s residents wandered the dark and windy streets searching for shelter.
One was Julie Zahirniako, who had been playing with her son Anthony at a school playground near the fertiliser plant when the explosion threw her son four feet into the air, breaking his ribs.
She said: “The fire was so high. It was just as loud as it could be. The ground and everything was shaking.”
Shattered ... shards of glass outside a block of flats in West following the blast
Danger ... the mushroom cloud ballooning into the sky
Glenn A. Robinson, the chief executive of Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, said his hospital had received 66 injured people for treatment, with medical teams treating blast injuries, orthopaedic injuries, large wounds and numerous lacerations and cuts.
Erick Perez, 21, of West - a relatively small town with a population of around 2,700 - was playing basketball at a nearby school when the fire started.
He and his friends thought nothing of it at first, but about a half hour later, the smoke changed colour.
The blast threw him, his nephew and others to the ground, and showered the area with hot embers, shrapnel and debris.
Perez said: “The explosion was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. This town is hurt really bad.”
Fears ... residents have been told to remain indoors because of the threat of toxic ammonia leaks
Aerial footage showed injured people being treated on the flood-lit football field that had been turned into a staging area for emergency services.
Initial rescue efforts were hampered after the local ambulance station was badly damaged amid a power blackout.
Mr Vanek said first-responders were treating victims at about half a dozen sites, and he saw several injured residents from the nursing home being treated at the community centre.
Vanek said: “Tomorrow is going to be a very sad day."
Emergency ... injured people treated on a flood-lit high school football field
Care ... elderly ladies are pushed on wheelchairs across the pitch towards medical teams
Local resident Debby Marak, 58, said she had finished teaching a class when she noticed smoke billowing across town near the plant.
She drove over to see what was happening before two boys came running toward her screaming that the authorities had ordered everyone out because the plant was going to explode.
Debby said she had driven only about a block when the blast happened. She said: “It was like being in a tornado. Stuff was flying everywhere. It blew out my windshield.
“It was like the whole earth shook.”
Smoke ... blast was felt in towns 40 miles away
Damage ... Town of West hit by 'extreme devastation'
When she got home about two miles south of town, her husband told her what he’d seen – a huge fireball that rose like “a mushroom cloud”.
American Red Cross crews from across Texas were also heading to the scene.
There was no immediate official word on what sparked the explosion. Cops are treating it as a crime scene although US Representative Bill Flores, whose district includes West, said he doubted any foul play was involved.
Scores of students last night gathered for candle-lit midnight vigil in nearby Waco to pray for the victims of the explosion.
One Baylor University student, Ben Prado, said: “One of my best friends, her aunt’s house had been burned. She was crying and as soon as I could, I got a hold of some people and said, ‘What can we do?’”
In 2001, an explosion at a chemical plant killed 31 people and injured more than 2,000 in Toulouse, France. The blast occurred in a hangar containing 300 tons of ammonium nitrate, which can be used for both fertiliser and explosives.
The explosion came 10 days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S., and raised fears at the time it was linked. A 2006 report blamed the blast on negligence.
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