Police: 5 to 15 People Killed in Texas Explosion

Waco Tribune Herald / Rod Aydelotte / AP

Emergency workers assist an elderly person at a staging area at a local school stadium Wednesday, 

April 17, 2013, in West, Texas. An explosion Wednesday night at a fertilizer plant near 

Waco sent flames shooting high into the night sky, leaving the factory a smoldering ruin,

 causing major damage at nearby buildings and injuring numerous people.

(WEST, Texas) — Rescue workers searched rubble that witnesses compared to a warzone early Thursday for survivors of a fertilizer plant explosion in a small Texas town that killed as many as 15 people and injured more than 160 others. The blast left the factory a smoldering ruin and leveled buildings for blocks in every direction.
The explosion in downtown West, about 20 miles north of Waco, shook the ground with the strength of a small earthquake and could be heard dozens of miles away. It sent flames shooting into the night sky and rained burning embers, shrapnel and debris down on shocked and frightened residents.
“They are still getting injured folks out and they are evacuating people from their homes,” Waco police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said early Thursday morning. “At this point, we don’t know a number that have been killed. … I think we will see those fatalities increase as we get toward the morning.” (...)

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