On the night of Wednesday, April 17, a devastating fire resulted from an exploding fertilizer plant in West, a small community in Texas just north of Waco.
The explosion, which led to as many as 15 deaths, more than 160 persons being injured, property damage and possible toxic fumes being released in the air, remains a concern for the central Texas town and the world at large, as firefighters and survivors are still considered missing there.
"At some point this will turn into a recovery operation, but at this point, we are still in search and rescue," Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton of the Waco Police Department said, according to the New York Times.
Sgt. Swanton later confirmed that the fires "were still smoldering at the plant, but 'there is nothing out of control over there at this point.' "
Along with the fact that the cause of the fertilizer plant explosion is still not known — with the FBI, U.S. Chemical Safety Board and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives all on the scene investigating — it has indeed been confirmed that the fire is being contained to the best of authorities' ability.
"Right now, there's not a whole lot that can be done," Rodney Watson, the chief deputy for the Hill County sheriff's office, said. "They got the fire contained, and there's no immediate danger with the chemicals or anything. There's no hazmat situation."
Regardless of the area becoming a safer place than it was immediately after the explosion Wednesday night, we can now see shocking, amateur footage taken by a man in the vicinity of the fertilizer plant when the explosion took place. The man originally was shooting what seemed to be an eerily halcyon scene of a fire looming in the distance — birds singing, the breeze blowing — before (at 30 seconds almost exactly into the short video) the explosion erupted to the point of sending debris and fire at the man in his car and his daughter, who was with him.
The man and his daughter quickly zoom away from the explosion, with the young girl crying that she "can't hear anything" and begging to leave immediately.
Since being uploaded by "zidyboby" on Wednesday, the video of the fertilizer plant explosion(s) has already been viewed nearly three million times on YouTube. It has received more than 15,000 likes and nearly 800 dislikes.
"numerous reports, they are ok," commenter Kirk Jordan says.
Other commenters began using the intense YouTube video posting as a forum for religious debate about the nature of Hell, praying and tolerance. There are also those commenting who began soapboxing about U.S.' invasion of Iraq.
"This isn't the proper forum for an atheism/theism discussion, this is a youtube video of an explosion and people are actually concerned," commenter Aaron Krahl posted.
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