waco hell, again

[alocispepraluger102]

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/Explosion-Injuries-Reported-At-West-Fertilizer-Plant-203505331.html

[JSngry]

Not exactly Waco (West is a little town distinctly removed from Waco), and not at this point any indication to think of it as anything other than an industrial accident. We have godawfully lax, horribly lax, criminally lax if you ask me, industrial safety laws and even worse enforcement of them. Burdensome regulation, and all that.

Not the first fire at a chemical plant in recent years...you may or may not have heard about this one:

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-20114848.html

Next time you hear the phrase "burdensome regulation", remember that they so often come from the lips of people who don't mind the possibility of something like this occurring as long as it actually doesn't, but funny how it actually does happen, eh?

[alocispepraluger102]

didn't a fertilizer plant blast kill 500 a few decades ago?

i understand west to be about 20 miles from waco.

isn't baylor u. close?

union pacific is worried about a railroad car full of anhydrous ammonia nearby.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2310640/Disaster-waiting-happen-Obama-administration-zeroed-budget-preventing-fertilizer-bomb-attacks-like-Oklahoma-City-blast.html

Edited April 18, 2013 by alocispepraluger102

[JSngry]

The 20 miles between Waco & West are "country miles", meaning that there's a significant gap in population between the two towns. You don't got out of West into Waco, you leave West, drive a while, and then come into Waco In between...not much, just land and the space it occupies, with a few wispy places with names attached to them in between.

Here's a map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45368065,d.b2I&biw=1540&bih=765&q=west,+tx&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x864f7566cf0ca5c7:0xfb25f7a61ca24545,West,+TX&gl=us&sa=X&ei=fnZvUfe1Joag2QXHiIDoAw&ved=0CIoBELYD

"Wide open spaces" still exist.

Edited April 18, 2013 by JSngry

[alocispepraluger102]

thx, jim

from the wiki

Crush, Texas, located just three miles (5 km) south of West, was the location of The Crash at Crush,^[8] a head-on collision between two locomotives that was staged on September 15, 1896, as a publicity stunt for the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad. Over 30,000 spectators gathered at the crash site, named "crush" for MKT passenger agent William Crush, who conceived the idea. About 4 p.m. the trains were sent speeding toward each other. Contrary to mechanics' predictions, the steam boilers exploded on impact, propelling pieces of metal into the crowd. Two people were killed and many others injured, including Jarvis Deane of Waco, who was photographing the event. Texas Historical Marker 5315, located on Interstate 35 northbound frontage road, between Mangrum and Wiggins Road, commemorates the event.^[9]

[sidewinder]

Next time you hear the phrase "burdensome regulation", remember that they so often come from the lips of people who don't mind the possibility of something like this occurring as long as it actually doesn't, but funny how it actually does happen, eh?

It will be interesting to see what the causes for this one were. Complacency, ineffective safety management culture, lack of enforcement/cutting of corners and failure to think outside the box when considering 'worst case scenarios' in the safing systems (and maintaining/checking them properly) no doubt are pretty high on the potential causal list.

Edited April 18, 2013 by sidewinder

[kh1958]

West is home to a favorite gas station on the Dallas to Austin drive.

http://www.czechstop.net

[MomsMobley]

litte czech stop... tell 'em about the kolach, tex... terrible story however, and most likely an industrial accident gone exceptionally wrong... of course, we hear of grain explosions more often and common as they are, they seem largely overlooked outside of the communities they occur--

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/23/4139989/charges-considered-in-atchison.html

how to prevent grain dust explosions--

http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2604/

re: worker and workplace safety, what do you mean, doesn't 'the free market' regulate itself?

hope West doesn't turn out as bad it seems but to answer aloc, yes, the first thing I thought of was not Waco but West itself, and say the music of Adolf Hofner (though he was from San Antonio).

The 20 miles between Waco & West are "country miles", meaning that there's a significant gap in population between the two towns. You don't got out of West into Waco, you leave West, drive a while, and then come into Waco In between...not much, just land and the space it occupies, with a few wispy places with names attached to them in between.

Here's a map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45368065,d.b2I&biw=1540&bih=765&q=west,+tx&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x864f7566cf0ca5c7:0xfb25f7a61ca24545,West,+TX&gl=us&sa=X&ei=fnZvUfe1Joag2QXHiIDoAw&ved=0CIoBELYD

"Wide open spaces" still exist.

[Matthew]

Sad tragedy for the families involved, that's for sure.

A couple of months ago, I had to drive to San Antonio for a conference, and after I passed El Paso until I hit the edge of San Antonio -- NOTHING! I couldn't believe Texas had empty stretches like that.

[JSngry]

West is home to a favorite gas station on the Dallas to Austin drive.

http://www.czechstop.net

Yes!

One would be excused for thinking that that whole Central Texas area is a hotbed of Southern Baptists due to Baylor, but the fact is that the area was settled by Czechs, Germans, & Poles, and that once you get out of Waco, the little towns around it still show those roots.

Although our image screams otherwise, we are a state of widely divergent topographies and populations.

[kh1958]

When they say Texas is BIG, they are not kidding..

Sad tragedy for the families involved, that's for sure.

A couple of months ago, I had to drive to San Antonio for a conference, and after I passed El Paso until I hit the edge of San Antonio -- NOTHING! I couldn't believe Texas had empty stretches like that.

[Blue Train]

Before I went to sleep last night; they were reporting 60 dead and a couple hundred injured. I was expecting to read even more had died. Thankfully, the death toll has been greatly reduced.

West is home to a favorite gas station on the Dallas to Austin drive.

http://www.czechstop.net

I have stopped there when when visting family in both cities.

Edited April 18, 2013 by Blue Train

[Blue Train]

didn't a fertilizer plant blast kill 500 a few decades ago?

i understand west to be about 20 miles from waco.

isn't baylor u. close?

union pacific is worried about a railroad car full of anhydrous ammonia nearby.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2310640/Disaster-waiting-happen-Obama-administration-zeroed-budget-preventing-fertilizer-bomb-attacks-like-Oklahoma-City-blast.html

I think you mean the Texas City Diaster. 581 people were killed. Close to 6000 injured....and over 500 homes destoryed. The 16th was the 66 anniversary.

[JSngry]

Texas City Disaster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster

You might have to be "local" to still know about it, but the New London School explosion of 1937 was still carrying much trauma with it when I was growing up in East Texas back in the 50s & 60s, and you can still find a few people directly touched by it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion

[Blue Train]

Texas City Disaster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster

You might have to be "local" to still know about it, but the New London School explosion of 1937 was still carrying much trauma with it when I was growing up in East Texas back in the 50s & 60s, and you can still find a few people directly touched by it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion

Heard about the New London School explosion from those alive at the time it happened. Some of them children themselves when it happened. None of them wanted to see the documentary.

[JSngry]

Burdensome Regulation so burdensome that it wasn't allowed to regulate!

http://news.yahoo.com/texas-fertilizer-company-didnt-heed-disclosure-rules-blast-123833418--finance.html

The fertilizer plant that exploded on Wednesday, obliterating part of a small Texas town and killing at least 14 people, had last year been storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Yet a person familiar with DHS operations said the company that owns the plant, West Fertilizer, did not tell the agency about the potentially explosive fertilizer as it is required to do, leaving one of the principal regulators of ammonium nitrate - which can also be used in bomb making - unaware of any danger there.

Burdensome! Regulation!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Looks like I was born into a world full-thrusting into the embrace of a country-jazz fusion, as well as a recognition-that The Man would always find a way to fuck you over.

Still the same world.

MG

[Blue Train]

https://www.facebook.com/WestFirefighters#!/WestFirefighters