The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released its preliminary findings on the West Texas explosion before the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works with testimony from Chairperson Rafael Moure-Eraso, PhD on June 27,2013.
The CSB found that loopholes in regulations, lack of preventative safety measures, along with lack of oversight, allowed the facility to store large amounts of ammonium nitrate, with only voluntary fire codes as guidance. While voluntary fire codes are valuable resources, Moure-Eraso points out that, “Texas and most of its counties have no fire code. So at West, these fire code provisions were strictly voluntary, and West Fertilizer had not volunteered.”
The investigators found that combustible seeds were stored near the ammonium nitrate (AN) with no fire-resistant partition, and the ammonium nitrate was stored in combustible wooden buildings, in wooden storage bins, and no sprinklers were required. The explosion itself resulted from an intense fire in warehouse, leading to the detonation of approximately 30 tons of AN. The combination of a combustible building, combustible bins, and the intensity of the fire heightened by the combustible seeds stored next to the AN resulted in a large blast that killed 15 people and destroyed the surrounding community.
Outdated and insufficient regulations, and no federal, state, or local standards restricting the siting of ammonium nitrate storage facilities in the vicinity of homes, schools, businesses, and health care facilities means the same risk could exist for other communities with similar facilities, exposing residents to life-threatening, and most likely preventable, explosion hazards.
