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Please pray for all of the people involved in the West, TX fert plant tragedy that happened this evening.

We do a lot of business down there and have good amount of customers....I have talked with some of them, and it is just an awful situation at present.

I heard a blurb about it. If the news hadn't been so full today, it may have been the lead story on the national news. It sounds like a very big fire.

I will keep them in my thoughts.

Bill

It is the lead news where I live. Sorry to hear about this, Jeff.

Just to be clear...we don't do business with the actual plant. I hope it didn't sound like that.

It is just a bad week for news.

This is a very weird week.

I'm working with a company just south of San Jose. Monday evening someone broke into a substation and shot up a bunch of the transformers. Additionally they cut two fiber optic cables that server the county south of San Jose. It took out some land line service and most of the internet. The company I work for had no internet until late this afternoon.

Minor compared to the other tragedies this week, but try running a tech company in the Silicon Valley with no internet.

Bill

ORIGINAL: wdolson

This is a very weird week.

I'm working with a company just south of San Jose. Monday evening someone broke into a substation and shot up a bunch of the transformers. Additionally they cut two fiber optic cables that server the county south of San Jose. It took out some land line service and most of the internet. The company I work for had no internet until late this afternoon.

Minor compared to the other tragedies this week, but try running a tech company in the Silicon Valley with no internet.

Bill

...no wonder my internet went bye-bye...hadn't heard that news...

It's a shame. West is a neat town with a strong Czech heritage and some great restaurants. They have a festival each year that's a lot of fun. Sure hope they can recover, word is four city blocks around the plant are basically leveled, with additional damage beyond that zone. Ugh, what a week. [:(]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

It's a shame. West is a neat town with a strong Czech heritage and some great restaurants. They have a festival each year that's a lot of fun. Sure hope they can recover, word is four city blocks around the plant are basically leveled, with additional damage beyond that zone. Ugh, what a week. [:(]

Why do they allow residential zoning next to a bomb? I'm sorry for the residents, but it's not like Texas doesn't have history with fertilizer explosions.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

It's a shame. West is a neat town with a strong Czech heritage and some great restaurants. They have a festival each year that's a lot of fun. Sure hope they can recover, word is four city blocks around the plant are basically leveled, with additional damage beyond that zone. Ugh, what a week. [:(]

Why do they allow residential zoning next to a bomb? I'm sorry for the residents, but it's not like Texas doesn't have history with fertilizer explosions.

I know Nevada had a nasty jet fuel plant explosion in 1988...It just happens I guess..

ORIGINAL: wdolson
This is a very weird week.

I'm working with a company just south of San Jose. Monday evening someone broke into a substation and shot up a bunch of the transformers. Additionally they cut two fiber optic cables that server the county south of San Jose. It took out some land line service and most of the internet. The company I work for had no internet until late this afternoon.

Minor compared to the other tragedies this week, but try running a tech company in the Silicon Valley with no internet.

Bill

ORIGINAL: Kwik E Mart
...no wonder my internet went bye-bye...hadn't heard that news...

The areas affected were the towns south of San Jose. Gilroy and Morgan Hill mostly. The company I work for is in Morgan Hill.

Back to the fertilizer plant explosion. I wonder if it was an act of domestic terrorism.

Fertilizer bombs are very nasty afterwards. The fertilizer puts a huge amount of nitrous oxide into the air which turns into nitric acid as soon as it comes in contact with water. It's deadly to breath the air because you will end up with nitric acid in your lungs.

Nitric acid is one of the nastier acids.

Bill

It was the lead story on the news tonight here in Brazil.

Poor folks who have had their lives shattered.

To get an idea of home big this explosion was. We heard the rumble which sounded like thunder 70 miles away. Some in the DFW metroplex reported their houses shaking 60 to 70 miles away. West is a nice place to stop on your way to Waco or Austin.

It's a tough thing but West is a good little community and they will bounce back.

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

It's a shame. West is a neat town with a strong Czech heritage and some great restaurants. They have a festival each year that's a lot of fun. Sure hope they can recover, word is four city blocks around the plant are basically leveled, with additional damage beyond that zone. Ugh, what a week. [:(]

Why do they allow residential zoning next to a bomb? I'm sorry for the residents, but it's not like Texas doesn't have history with fertilizer explosions.

I know Nevada had a nasty jet fuel plant explosion in 1988...It just happens I guess..

The worst industrial accident of the 20th C. in the USA was a Texas fertilizer explosion.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-hist ... 1-in-texas

"A giant explosion occurs during the loading of fertilizer onto the freighter Grandcamp at a pier in Texas City, Texas, on this day in 1947. Nearly 600 people lost their lives and thousands were injured when the ship was literally blown to bits. . . .

. . . The blast was heard 150 miles away and was so powerful that the ship's 1.5- ton anchor was found two miles away. The force of the explosion lifted another ship right out of the water. People working at the docks were killed instantly. . . .

. . . In all, 581 people died and 3,500 were injured. The explosion caused $100 million in damages. A long-disputed court case over the cause of the blast was resolved when Congress granted compensation to 1,394 victims. They received a total of $17 million in 1955. The port was rebuilt to handle oil products only."

Something happened in Newfoundland, I think during the war, and I think it was an ammunition ship, and the explosion destroyed the port facilities and a lot more. And there was that one during the war on the West coast when an ammunition ship being loaded blew and it was huge. Many black sailors incinerated. Of course, those were not "industrial" accidents.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Something happened in Newfoundland, I think during the war, and I think it was an ammunition ship, and the explosion destroyed the port facilities and a lot more. And there was that one during the war on the West coast when an ammunition ship being loaded blew and it was huge. Many black sailors incinerated. Of course, those were not "industrial" accidents.

Port Chicago, Ca. About 350 dead, hundreds wounded. Texas 1947 was a lot worse.