Christopher Sherman and Nomaan Merchant
Associated Press
in West, TX
via ABC News
4/19/2013
The bodies of 12 people have been recovered from the remnants of a tiny Texas farm town that was rocked by a roaring explosion at a fertilizer plant, authorities said Friday, confirming for the first time the number of people who perished in the accident.
Officials did not identify those killed, but the dead were believed to include a small group of firefighters and other first-responders who rushed toward the West Fertilizer Co. to battle a fire that apparently touched off the blast.
Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jason Reyes said he could not confirm how many first-responders had been killed. Efforts to search the devastated buildings were continuing, he added.
The Wednesday evening explosion was strong enough to register as a small earthquake and could be heard for many miles across the Texas prairie. It demolished nearly everything for several blocks around the plant. More than 200 people were hurt.
Even before investigators disclosed the fatalities, the names of the dead were becoming known throughout the community of 2,800. Townspeople gathered late Thursday for a service at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church.
“We don’t know what to think,” the Rev. Ed Karasek told those gathered at the service. “Our town of West will never be the same, but we will persevere.”
Christina Rodarte, who has lived in West for 27 years, said “everyone knows the first-responders, because anytime there’s anything going on, the fire department is right there, all volunteer.”
The only fatality who has been publicly identified was Kenny Harris, a 52-year-old captain in the Dallas Fire Department who lived south of West. He was off-duty at the time but responded to the fire to help, according to a statement from the city of Dallas…
The article continues at ABC News.
Related: Texas blast toll at 14, investigators seek cause
…The deaths included paramedics and volunteer firefighters who responded to an initial fire alarm, and likely were killed by the ensuing blast, which was so powerful it registered as a magnitude 2.1 earthquake.
It left a devastated landscape, reducing a 50-unit apartment complex to what one local official called “a skeleton standing up,” destroying about 50 homes and heavily damaging a nursing home and schools.
Officials on Friday said 25 homes had yet to be searched. In some cases the structures needed to be reinforced before anyone could enter, they said…
…The death toll was huge for a town of 2,700, and nearly everyone seemed to know someone who died or was presumed dead.
Brian Uptmor, 37 said his brother disappeared after he went toward the fire on Wednesday night to try to save horses in a pasture near the plant.
William “Buck” Uptmor, 44, has not been found among the injured at area hospitals, has not answered his cell phone and his truck has not moved from where he left it.
“He is dead. We don’t know where his body is,” said Uptmor, a former firefighter…
Firefighters conduct a search and rescue of an apartment destroyed by an explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, Thursday, April 18, 2013. A massive explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. killed as many as 15 people and injured more than 160, officials said overnight. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Photo H/T The Huffington Post; 60 People Still Missing After Texas Explosion, 12 Bodies Recovered
