On April 17, 2013, at 7:29 p.m., a fire was reported at the West Fertilizer facility in West, Texas. 22 minutes later, 60 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded, causing 15 deaths, injuring 300 people. Of the town’s 700 homes, about 350 were affected by the explosion, including 193 that were destroyed or severely damaged. The explosion produced ground motion equivalent to that of a magnitude 2.1 earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The explosion left a crater 93 feet wide and 10 feet deep.
West Fertilizer Co, founded in 1962, is a retail facility that blends fertilizer and sells anhydrous ammonia and other chemical products to local farmers. It stored 270 tons of “extremely hazardous” ammonium nitrate, according to a report filed by the company with the state government.
Dallas television station WFAA reported from helicopters that a roughly three-block area of West appeared to have been flattened. “It’s a lot of devastation. I’ve never seen anything like this,” McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said. “It looks like a war zone with all the debris.”
