» 美国德克萨斯化肥厂爆炸，死亡人数攀升至35人
路透社 Regina Dennis从西德克萨斯报道
-Hundreds of people were likely injured in a fiery explosion on Wednesday night at a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, that damaged or destroyed numerous buildings including a school and nursing home, authorities said.
The blast was reported at about 8 p.m. CDT (0100 GMT on Thursday) in West, a town of some 2,700 people about 80 miles south of Dallas and 20 miles north of Waco."It's a lot of devastation. I've never seen anything like this," said McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara. "It looks like a war zone with all the debris."There was no immediate official word on what sparked the explosion as emergency personnel assisted victims and doused the flames.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, D.L. Wilson, told Reuters the blast had probably caused "hundreds of casualties" and damaged many homes. He added that a nearby nursing home had collapsed from the explosion and that people were believed trapped inside.
McNamara said the nursing home and much of the center of town had been evacuated, and that residences near the explosion had been leveled.The air in town remained thick with smoke more than two hours after the explosion, and the area around the blast site was littered with shards of wood, bricks and glass.A Reuters reporter observed that a nearby middle school and several homes were severely burned. Dallas television station WFAA reported from helicopters that roughly a three-block area of West appeared to have been destroyed.More than 100 people were being taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, said vice president of hospital operations David Argueta.Hillcrest CEO Glenn Robinson told CNN that the hospital was seeing "everything from orthopedic injuries to patients that are experiencing serious blood loss."Governor Rick Perry issued a statement saying his office had "mobilized state resources to help local authorities" deal with the incident.A White House official said the Obama administration was aware of the situation and monitoring local and state response through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The explosion came two days before the 20th anniversary of a fire in Waco that engulfed a compound inhabited by David Koresh and his followers in the Branch Davidian sect, ending a siege by federal agents.
Some 82 members of the sect and four federal agents died at Waco.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman, Tim Gaynor and David Bailey; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Xavier Briand)(The story corrects byline to Regina Dennis, instead of Regina Davis)
( Steve Gorman，Tim Gaynor， David Bailey报道， Steve Gorman出稿，Cynthia Johnston，Xavier Briand编辑，Regina Dennis，Regina Davis校对 )
德克萨斯化肥厂大爆炸事态混乱
By: Channel 9 Eyewitness News
News@kcautv.com
A fire and chemical explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant in a small town north of Waco, Texas, injured at least 179 people, destroyed dozens of homes and prompted widespread evacuations. The blast Wednesday evening at the West Fertilizer Plant in West, Texas, caused fatalities, officials said, but early this morning they would estimate how many.
"We have tremendous amount of injuries, probably over 100 injuries at this time," said State Trooper D.L. Wilson of the Texas Department of Public Safety at around 1 a.m. ET. "At this time, we do have confirmed fatalities." Officials were going door-to-door searching for survivors. Emergency personnel who responded to a fire at the plant before the initial explosion were believed unaccounted for, according to West Mayor Tommy Muska and Sgt.
William Patrick Swanton of the Waco Police Department. In addition, officials were concerned about potentially dangerous ammonia fumes emanating from the plant, as well as forecast winds that might spread the chemical fumes in new directions early this morning. "What you see with high-level ammonia exposure is damage to your eyes, to your throat, to your nose, to your esophagus when you swallow," said Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News' chief health and medical editor. Buildings in a radius of about five blocks around the plant were heavily damaged -- perhaps 75 homes or more, officials said.
Witnesses reported heavy fire or concussive damage to a middle school, homes and an apartment complex near the plant, as well as a nursing home, where more than 130 residents were evacuated, according to Muska. "It's total chaos," West City Councilwoman Cheryl Marak said soon after the blast, according to ABC News Radio. "There's ambulances and fire trucks and police cars from everywhere."
By 3:30 a.m. ET, hospitals near the blast site reported treating 179 people, with 10 more being triaged. At least 24 patients at the hospitals were in critical condition and 38 in serious condition. Baptist Hillcrest Medical Center in Waco, Texas, had more than 100 of the patients and was assessing approximately 10 more in the triage area, according to David Argueta, vice president of operations. Patients from the blast also were confirmed early Thursday at Providence Healthcare Network in Waco, Parkland Hospital in Dallas, and Scott and White Memorial in Temple, Texas. Wilson described the initial blast as "massive -- just like Iraq, just like the Murray Building in Oklahoma City.
The same kind of hydrous exploded, so you can imagine what kind of damage we're looking at." The blast burned buildings, knocked down people, blew out windows and, according to Wilson, left the apartment complex looking like "just a skeleton standing up." It even registered as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Marak told ABC News that the explosion killed her pet dog and destroyed her house approximately 1/2 blocks from the plant, as well as houses around it.
"With the explosions, the whole street lifted up," she told ABC News. "It was like a massive bomb went off. It demolished both my houses -- my mother's and mine." "I think everything around us is pretty much just gone," she added, according to ABC News Radio. Keith Williams, a local resident, said his house also was destroyed, according to ABC News Radio. "All the ceilings are out," Williams said. "The windows are out. The brick's knocked off the house. My big garage out back is half blowed in." He also saw "people with all their houses tore up across the street from me, on each side of me."
The fertilizer plant exploded around 7:50 p.m. local time Wednesday, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Emergency response audio told the story of the chaos among firefighters and others at the scene. "We need every ambulance we can get this way," said one snippet. "A bomb just went off. It's pretty bad." "Firefighters down," said another. "There has been an explosion." "The rest home has been seriously damaged. We have many people down. Please respond." There were subsequent explosions around 10 p.m., ABC News affiliate WFAA reported.
The cause of the explosions was unconfirmed, but a dispatcher was heard warning crews to move away from chemicals in unexploded tanks. Though most fires were contained early Thursday, officials said, they continued to burn. "It was smoldering still and it still is active," Wilson said around 1 a.m. ET. "You know other ingredients at the facility, so we don't want that to explode again. So right now we can't get firefighters in there. We're worried about people right now, not property. "We're gonna go back in and do another house-to-house search and see if anybody else, victims, are in the houses," Wilson said. "That's going to be going on all night." The town of West has a population of about 2,800.
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- One person has been confirmed killed and another 35 people are still missing after an explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant that injured 160, flattened houses and devastated the center of the town of West.
Police initially put the death toll at up to 15, but later on Thursday Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Jason Reyes told reporters that while the explosion had been deadly, it is not yet known exactly how many had been killed.
The flag at the West Volunteer Fire Department was flying at half-staff and chaplains were on site to console people. Muska said five firefighters in the 29-member department were injured.
西部消防局降了半旗，牧师在现场安慰群众，马斯卡说消防部的29名成员中有五人受伤。
Police said the fertilizer plant was in a highly populated neighborhood. "It is still a very volatile situation," said Chief Deputy Sheriff Matt Cawthon of McLennan County.West Fertilizer Co is a retail facility that blends fertilizer and sells it to farmers. It stored 270 tons of ammonium nitrate, along with other "extremely hazardous" chemicals including anhydrous ammonia in 2012, according to a report the company filed with the state government.Anhydrous ammonia is used by farmers as fertilizer to boost soil nitrogen levels and improve crop production.
警方说，化肥厂周围是一个人口稠密的地区。“这种状况很不安全，”麦克伦南县的副警长马特卡森说，西部化肥有限公司是一家给农民们销售设施和混合肥料的公司。它储存了270吨硝酸铵，以及其他化学品。“这是极其危险的。” 一份州政府2012的调查报告表明，这家公司还储存有无水氨。无水氨是农民们用来提高土壤氮含量的化肥，可以提高作物产量。
According to the Centers for Disease Control, mixing 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.
疾病控制中心指出，无水氨和水混合后，会产生一种有毒云雾，而氨与空气混合后就会形成爆炸混合物，加热后容器就会爆炸。CDC消息。
The West plant is one of thousands of sites across rural America that store and sell hazardous materials such as chemicals and fertilizer for agricultural use, many within close range of residences and schools. The company is privately owned and has fewer than 10 employees.
西部化肥厂是成千上万家化肥厂中的一个，很多都离居民区和学校很近。这家公司是私营的，雇员少于10人。
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.
目前尚未联系到工厂负责人。
Texas is no stranger to industrial disasters. In 1947, 3,200 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer detonated aboard a ship in a Texas City port, killing almost 600 people, an incident believed to be the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history.
