Posted on 05/10/2013 8:59:48 AM PDT by ConservativeMan55
Texas authorities now looking at the WestTown fertilizer plant explosion as CRIMINAL.
(Excerpt) Read more at twitter.com ...
whoa! Maybe so.......
What about it??? lol
Homemade firecrackers are considered destructive devices. These guys were first responders. Not the destructive types, in all odds.
Posted on Facebook on Tuesday....His own brother died in that fire. :(
“So, I will say it AGAIN!!! I have not received ONE CENT for ANYTHING that I did to help with this situation. I have not been paid by the media, by press, I made nothing for delivering my brothers eulogy, and made NOTHING off of this tragedy. I was a shoulder to cry on, I found a GREAT new family, and was blessed to get to tell them about their son. THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME!!! IT IS ABOUT 12 HEROS THAT DIED TO SAVE LIVES!!!!! I am blessed to be alive. Period. I lost a lot in this and there have been INCREDIBLY kind people who are taking donations so I can get a HOME AND LIFE back, however, never would I PROFIT from anyones death. I loved and still love Cyrus A. Reed, and he loved me. I did and will do what I thought was right. Was I emotionally devistated? Hell yes I was. Have your brother die, your town explode, your crew be emotionally wrecked, and in the midst of it have your wife leave you because you are lost in your own emotions: ALL IN THE SAME WEEK, and see how you fare. People I am doing my BEST to hold myself together, but please for the love of God quit picking me apart. I have to bury yet ANOTHER friend tomorrow. God Bless”
This anchor was blown from the S.S. Grandcamp when this ship blew up on April 16, 1947, while moored at Texas City Terminal docks. The anchor, which weighed approximately 3200 lbs. originally, was projected from the ship to a point on Pan American property at 2000-S and 2160-E, sinking about 10 feet into the soil in landing. The distance traveled from the ship to point of landing was 1.62 miles or 8575 lin. ft.
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=50168
It is no surprise a large amount of ammonia nitrate, after being in a fire, would cause such a large explosion.
Well, of course, I had NO idea of it’s destructive power. Should have, though, after what happened in OKC.
I just pray that this young man is innocent of these charges. I never want to think badly of a first responder. Ever!
FYI
criminal as in someone set the fire to draw in first responders then set off an explosion. Can’t use the word terrorism, you know.
This story clarifies things. Cyrus Reed was not his brother.
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/22216759/first-responder
Same name. Very close. Considered him a brother. But not related.
FWIW
There is so little out there on this story, I tried to find out more when it happened. I know the Boston bombing took away the MSM but not much in the local news from there either. A friend of ours lives 20 miles from there and said he has heard little about it on his news since the first couple of days.
I had read that the plant had problems with meth makers stealing from them in the past.
Remember during/after Katrina; Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas didn't even exist. It was all about the New Orleans low info voters. Remember, Zippy gave speech in West ONLY because he was in Texas for the Bush Library.
Thank you for clearing that up!
No problem. I hope this man is cleared. I see even his wife left him.
Terrible.
Whoa. Thanks for the ping!
I said this looked like sabotage from the beginning and I was ridiculed here on Free Republic. Just about everyone here insisted that it was “just an accident”. Anyone with a contrary opinion was dismissed.
This was too big and got out of control too fast to just be an unfortunate accident. In my mind the signs have always pointed to this being a deliberate act.
Do you say the same thing about the Texas City Ammonia Nitrate Explosion from 1947? It was a bigger explosion that started first with a fire.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/10/us-usa-explosion-texas-idUSBRE9490LH20130510
Paramedic arrested, link to criminal probe of Texas plant blast unclear
snip
SURVIVOR OF BLAST
Bryce Reed told Reuters last month that he had been a paramedic for 13 years and that he had worked in combat zones overseas as a contract paramedic.
Bryce and Brittany Reed said that they were listening to music at their home when they heard the town’s siren and jumped into their truck to warn people nearby.
“Get your kids and go!” the couple said they yelled at residents of an apartment complex near the plant. They said they were about 50 to 75 yards from the plant when the blast rocked their vehicle.
The force of the blast also destroyed their home, blowing the doors off and filling their two-year-old daughter’s bedroom with shards of glass, Bryce Reed said.
“Had she been in there, she’d be dead,” he said. “We’ve lost everything. But my family is alive and that’s enough for me.”
He also said that he lost his best friend, volunteer firefighter Cyrus Reed, in the blast. The two were not related, but were so close they considered each other brothers, Bryce Reed said at the time.
“There’s no words to convey the magnitude of this incident,” Reed said last month.
end snip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster
from WIKI
snip
The 38% ammonium nitrate, used as fertilizer and in blasting agents, was manufactured in Nebraska and Iowa and shipped to Texas City by rail before being loaded on the Grandcamp.
It was manufactured in a patented process, mixed with clay, petrolatum, rosin and paraffin wax to avoid moisture caking. It was also packaged in paper sacks, then transported and stored at temperatures that increased its chemical activity. Longshoremen reported the bags were warm to the touch prior to loading.
Around 8:00 a.m., smoke was spotted in the cargo hold of the Grandcamp while it was still moored at its dock. Over the next hour, attempts to put out the fire or put it under control failed as a red glow returned after each effort to douse the fire.
Shortly before 9:00 a.m., the captain ordered his men to steam the hold, a firefighting method where steam is piped in to put out fires in the hope of preserving the cargo. Meanwhile, the fire had attracted a crowd of spectators along the shoreline, who believed they were a safe distance away.[3] Spectators noted that the water around the docked ship was already boiling from the heat, and the splashing water touching the hull of the ship was vaporized into steam. The cargo hold and deck began to bulge as the pressure of the steam increased inside.
At 9:12 a.m., the ammonium nitrate reached an explosive threshold and the vessel then detonated, causing great destruction and damage throughout the port. The tremendous blast (29.3756°N 94.8916°W) sent a 15-foot (4.5 m) wave that was detectable nearly 100 miles (160 km) off the Texas shoreline. The blast leveled nearly 1,000 buildings on land. The Grandcamp explosion destroyed the Monsanto Chemical Company plant and resulted in ignition of refineries and chemical tanks on the waterfront. Falling bales of burning twine added to the damage while the Grandcamp's anchor was hurled across the city. Sightseeing airplanes flying nearby had their wings shorn off,[4] forcing them out of the sky. Ten miles away, people in Galveston were forced to their knees; windows were shattered in Houston, Texas, 40 miles (60 km) away. People felt the shock 100 miles away in Louisiana. The explosion blew almost 6,350 tons of the ship's steel into the air, some at supersonic speed. Official casualty estimates came to a total of 567, including all the crewmen who remained onboard the Grandcamp, but many victims were burned to ashes or blown to bits, and the official total is believed to be an undercount. All but one member of the Texas City volunteer fire department were killed in the initial explosion on the docks while fighting the shipboard fire, and with the fires raging, first responders from other areas were initially unable to reach the site of the disaster.
The first explosion ignited ammonium nitrate in the nearby cargo ship High Flyer. The crews spent hours attempting to cut the High Flyer free from its anchor and other obstacles, but without success. After smoke had been pouring out of its hold for over five hours, and about 15 hours after the explosions aboard the Grandcamp, the High Flyer blew up demolishing the nearby SS Wilson B. Keene, killing at least two more people and increasing the damage to the port and other ships with more shrapnel and fire. One of the propellers on the High Flyer was blown off, and found almost a mile inland; it is now part of a memorial park, and sits near the anchor of the Grandcamp. The propeller is cracked in several places, and one of the blades has a large piece missing from it, a mute testament to the destruction that took place that day.
end snip
I wasn’t alive then. What started the fire?
Forensic analysis methods are much better now than in 1947.
Did they rule out Arson?
Or was there nothing left of the place to make a determination?
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