Search for Texas blast survivors

The remains of a fertiliser plant smoulder after a massive explosion in the town of West, near Waco, Texas yesterday. The deadly explosion ripped through the plant late on Wednesday.Reuters/West, TexasRescuers worked in cold rain yesterday to find survivors amid the rubble of houses destroyed in a fiery explosion at a Texas fertiliser plant filled with hazardous chemical tanks.The death toll in West, Texas ranged from five to 15 people and was likely to change as rescuers went from house to house along the burned-out streets after the West Fertiliser Co blew up on Wednesday night, said Sgt William Patrick Swanton of the police department in nearby Waco.The cause of the fire and explosion, which occurred just before 8pm and injured more than 160 people, was not known. Officials said no evidence of foul play had been found.The US Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents, was on the scene, as was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.Firefighters had been battling a fire at the plant on Wednesday night for about 20 minutes before the blast rocked the town of 2,700 people about 20 miles (32km) north of Waco.Three to four volunteer firefighters were still missing, Swanton said.“They were actively fighting the fire at the time the explosion occurred,” he said at a news conference held in a cattle auction house, where cows lowed behind him.Swanton said the plant was storing huge tanks of anhydrous ammonia. Anhydrous ammonia is used by farmers as fertiliser to boost nitrogen levels in soil and increase crop production.According to the Centers for Disease Control, anhydrous ammonia and water produces a poisonous cloud. When ammonia mixes with air, it forms an explosive mixture, and containers may explode when heated, according to the CDC.The West plant is one of thousands of sites across rural America that store and sell hazardous materials such as chemicals and fertiliser for agricultural use, many within close range of residences and schools. Privately owned by 83-year-old Donald Adair, the company has fewer than 10 employees.The plant had not been inspected by state officials since 2006, when a complaint of an ammonia smell was resolved, said Zak Covar, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.State inspections are done only when there is a complaint, Covar said.The federal Environmental Protection Agency fined the firm $2,300 in 2006 for failing to implement a risk management plan.The plant’s owner could not be reached for comment.The firefighters had been evacuating several blocks around the fire before the blast out of concern for dangerous fumes, Swanton said. That threat had abated by yesterday, he said.In West, the middle school, which was badly damaged, was one fifth of a mile from the plant and the high school was one-third of a mile away.The blast destroyed 60 to 80 houses, reduced a 50-unit apartment complex to what one local official called “a skeleton standing up” and left a horrific landscape of burned-out buildings and blackened rubble.“Last night was truly a nightmare scenario,” said Texas Governor Rick Perry. “This tragedy has most likely hit every family.”Obama, who flew to Boston for a memorial service for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, offered support and prayers to the victims in Texas.Obama told a memorial service for the Boston bombing victims that “we will find” whoever carried out the attack that killed three people as investigators search for two men seen on a video of the scene shortly before the blasts. Page 5

Cables of condolencesHH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, HH the Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani have sent cables of condolences to US President Barack Obama on the victims of the explosion that devastated a fertiliser plant in Texas.