Experts say West explosion has all hallmarks of ammonium nitrate as fuel

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Environmental Writer

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Published: 30 April 2013 10:46 PM




Chemistry, engineering, physics and fate dictated life and death during milliseconds on a quiet Central Texas night.

Although agencies investigating the deadly explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. on April 17 have said little, experts not involved in the inquiry told The Dallas Morning News that the visual record already yields many clues about what happened, why some buildings survived and others didn’t, and why some people lived and others died.

Among them: Random inches and the strength of an apartment wall might have saved people. The building housing the fertilizer apparently did not burn. A school roof apparently lifted up and then crashed.

And the explosion’s fuel was, in all likelihood, many tons of ammonium nitrate. The crater and the pattern of destruction say so.

“Look at the damage done,” said Richard John Smythe, a chemist with 40 years of explosion investigation experience in Canada and the U.S. “The aerial photos look like there’s a ‘ring structure’ where the blast wave went out.


http://www.dallasnews.com/news/west-explosion/headlines/20130430-experts-say-west-explosion-has-all-hallmarks-of-ammonium-nitrate-as-fuel.ece