Texas town honours blast victims

Initial reports put the deaths in the explosion in West on Wednesday as high as 15, although the authorities have refused to give any estimate. More than 160 people were hurt.

Several hundred people packed St Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in the Texas town.

A victim relief services chaplain said the prayers and hymns honoured the members of the emergency services who rushed towards the danger of the plant fire that led to the blast, as well as those who were too close to the site when the explosion erupted. Hundreds of white candles were distributed in the pews for a candlelight tribute.

Meanwhile, rescuers were searching the smoking remnants of the farm town for survivors. They were checking destroyed houses and flats for anyone still trapped in debris.

A breathtaking band of destruction extended for a wide area around the West Fertiliser Co. The blast shook the ground with the strength of a small earthquake and crumpled dozens of homes, an apartment complex, a school and a nursing home. Its dull boom could be heard dozens of miles away.

Waco police Sgt William Swanton described search-and-rescue efforts as "tedious and time-consuming," noting that crews had to shore up much of the wreckage before going in.

There was no indication that the blast, which sent up a mushroom-shaped plume of smoke and left behind a crater, was anything other than an industrial accident, he said. The explosion was apparently touched off by a fire, but there was no indication what sparked the blaze.

The company had been cited by regulators for what appeared to be minor safety and permitting violations over the past decade.

While the community tended to its deep wounds, investigators awaited clearance to enter the blast zone for clues to what set off the plant's huge stockpile of volatile chemicals. "It's still too hot to get in there," said Franceska Perot, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Source: http://www.standard.co.uk/panewsfeeds/texas-town-honours-blast-victims-8579514.html

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