Police say between 5 to 15 people were killed and more than 160 were injured in a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, late Wednesday.
The explosion at West Fertilizer in downtown West — a community of roughly 2,600 residents about 20 miles north of Waco — happened around 8 p.m. and could be heard as far away as Waxahachie, a town located 45 miles north. It sent flames spiraling high into the evening sky and rained burning embers, shrapnel and debris down on frightened residents.
A member of the city council, Al Vanek, said a four-block area around the explosion was “totally decimated.” Other witnesses compared the scene to that of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and authorities said the plant made materials similar to that used to fuel the bomb that tore apart that city’s Murrah Federal Building.
Debby Marak told The Associated Press that she noticed a lot of smoke in the area across town near the plant when she finished teaching her religion class Wednesday. She said she drove over to see what was happening, and that when she got there, two boys came running toward her screaming that the authorities had ordered everyone out because the plant was going to explode. She drove only about a block when it did.
“It was like being in a tornado,” Marak, 58, said during a phone interview. “Stuff was flying everywhere. It blew out my windshield. It was like the whole earth shook.”
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