if there is a silveining we did just get a briefing moments ago from a police spokesperson who says that the fire at the teeter lieser plant itself -- at the fertilizer plant itself is out at this hour. that's good. it is under control to the p oi nt -- point where they can let in some firefighters to do some damage assessments. what is happening right now as we speak, they are going home to home to home trying to see if anyone needs rescuing or if anyone has lost their life. at this point, they are not confirming any numbers in terms of fatalities that came out of this. earlier in the evening we heard the director of the emergency management services saying that the fatality count could go as high as 70, but all of the press conferences that have been held since then no one has confirmed or substantiated the information. quite frankly they say we have

to wait until the sun comes up which is several hours away until they can get in there and get a feel for how much damage was done and how many people lost their life in this massive explosion and how many people remain injured. we are hearing reports that some people could still remain trapped this their homes. what those emergency crews are doing is they are going through and then once they sweep a home they are putting an x. it is like we saw during hurricane katrina. they are spray painting an x to verify the home has been checked and whether somebody was recovered from there or if somebody had to go to the hospital. we are hearing upwards of 175 people. can you imagine? 175 people injured in this explosion from broken bones to inhalation injuries at the local hospitals. 80 miles from this location were receiving patients. nine medical helicopters landed here throughout the evening. transporting of course the most critical.

this is still a very fluid situation at this point, but there is new troubling information coming into us. the associated press is reporting that this particular fertilizer plant was cited by the texas commission of environmental quality in june of 2006 for failing to obtain or qualify for a permit. what that exactly means we are still trying to flush that out, and no doubt that information is is going to be coming out later today as we get more details on it. the chemical safety board is in route from washington, d.c. that is a federal agency that goes in and investigates chemical, industrial chemical accidents. they have assembled a team to come here and are trying to get to the bottom of this. the dallas morning newspaper has reported at this particular plant there were some 54,000 pounds of

anhydrous ammonia. it is a very volatile chemical. the press briefing we had a short time ago they were saying that before the explosion there was already a fire burning at this plant. the firefighters and even the local ems and police were on the scene trying to get the fire under control. a fire that may have been burning either under or in the vicinity of the anhydrous ammonium tanks and the folks on the ground expressed interest that there was a potential danger associated with that. and then the next thing you know the explosion reported. reports of fireballs shooting 90 to a hundred feet in the air. i know the video surfaced on youtube and i know we have been showing it, elizabeth. it is something that gives you chills from the bottom of your toes to the top of your head you can hear how loud it is and you know that it doesn't fully translate on camera. experiencing that blast in

person and how it literally blew the person who was filming it back with their iphone or their smart phone, you can only imagine what it was like in person to witness, experience and feel it, elizabeth. no doubt tragedy unfolding here in west texas. >> absolutely. i think when you say tragedy unfolding, this is certainly going to develop as the morning continues. we spoke with the ceo of one of the medical centers, providence, and he says the injuries he is seeing, one of them critical. there are a lot of broken bones, scrapes, minor abrasions, but a lot of people are talking about the respiratory illness from this anhydrous ammonia. like you said it could be shifting. the eight to ten block radius could be shifting from 15 to 20 miles away. we know the wind shifts could be changing patterns. it is a story that could be developing thought only with

the injuries, but the reporting that is inevitable with fatalities. there are fatalities. the injuries will continue with the respiratory illness. are people being evacuated at this point in the other areas that you are aware of by chance? >> right now it is mostly to the south. this happened in the center of downtown west texas. we are not talking about geographically speaking west. we are talking about the town is called west, texas. it is about 20 miles north of waco and 80 miles south of dallas. the firefighters had said this happened in the downtown area. the winds are blowing to the south. all of the people south have been evacuated. the wind was carrying the chemical fumes. the concern has been in the next few hours around 7:00, 8:00 in the morning that these winds are going to shift to the north. if that happens obviously the

people up wind, north of the low cation could be this dangerous -- north of the location could be in danger. they are looking at the weather patterns very closely as well and monitoring that situation. it is not just the fires, but it is not just the smoldering debris they are concerned about. it is the chemical that appears to be lingering in the air, elizabeth. >> for some of the viewers who were tuning in, you left from dallas late last night and traveled through the early morning hours. you learned more and more about the response efforts. initially there were some challenges because there really was a no fly zone over the toxic plume. but then you mentioned there were up to nine medical helicopters. you had to get folks to hospitals and not only locally, but like you mentioned across the state of texas. and some of them are going as far as dallas which is

ironically where you came from. you said it was because of a burn unit there. are we getting a good gauge of not only the response effort statewide, but the potential damages that we could see as the morning comes up? >> yes, you know and the dps, the department of public safety officials said in a press conference earlier that it looked like a battlefield in there. it looked like a war zone. blocks of this community leveled basically. there was an apartment complex, a relatively small complex, hearing now it was 50 units close by. the word being used to describe what is left of that unit is a skeleton. we don't know about the folks that lived in there and how many people were home at the time of the blast. there was also a nursing home nearby with more than a under h elderly -- a hundred elderly residents that called that home.

reports are the nursing home collapsed and they had to be pulled from the rubble. earlier they said that they would not speculate in terms of how many of the injured came from that nursing home or how many of the fatalities came from the nursing home. we know there were businesses in the area and we know there were a number of homes as well. really the focus has been as i said still very much a search and rescue/search recovery mission underway as they go home to home and business to business trying to make sure people are alive. and if they need the medical attention getting them out of here. as this call came in, it was an all hands on deck situation. i was monitoring the police scanners on the internet and all available ems from the area counties and the area cities all were dispatched to this community to assist, and at one point very early on, there were so many casualties

that there were not enough ambulances to transport the wounded. they were putting victims in their squad cars and then taking them to area hospitals because there were simply not enough ambulances to do the transportation. it was a very large scale incident. a lot of people raced here, converged on the area and did the best they could to tend to the wounded and the injured and get them off to the hospital and get them triaged. there was a triage area set up at a football field. we saw once the news helicopters and the all clear was given, we saw news helicopters hovering over the --

>> this is is a fox news alert. we are in washington, d.c. and

watching the continuous coverage out of west, texas where we know a fertilizer plant explosion has left many people in the hospital , hundreds of injuries and there are fatalities. we are waiting a press conference before we learn how many people have in fact died as a result of this blast. that being said there are a lot of folks who are unable to go to their homes this early morning. there is an evacuated area and authorities are going door-to-door looking for folks. joining us now on the phone is stacy who works at the best western. stacy, i want to ask you, how far were you from the blast and did you feel it last night around 8:00 p.m.? okay, stacy is unable to join us at the moment. we are going to quickly go to the presser. folks at home can get an idea exactly what happened. let's take a listen. >> to bring everybody up to speed on what we know and what

has happened so far tonight, we know at 6:00 p.m. roughly our time there was a fire at the west fertilizer company in downtown west, texas. once that fire started their fire department responded. numerous firefighters went to the scene to assist in putting that fire out. as they were at the scene, they realized the seriousness of what they had based on it being a fertilizer plant. we knew there was anhydrous ammonia in there. we realized the volatile tee of that and how explosive it could be. they immediately started doing some evacuations of homes, of businesses, trying to get people out of the area. approximately 50 minutes after their response there was a massive explosion at that fertilizer plant. they were in the process of removing people from homes and a nursing home in the area and also an apartment complex. i can tell you from me driving

to the scene there, there is quite a bit of devastation this that area. there are victims in homes and there are victims from the nursing home, and there are victims also from an apartment complex, approximately a 50-unit apartment complex. some of the photographs have been on tv and you have seen the devastation. i can tell you once they started to clear the injured out there was a tremendous response from law enforcement agency from the sheriff's department and waco pd and waco fire and mcclinnon emergency management and other numerous agencies responded to assist with west. many ambulance companies and the medical personnel also assisted here as well, and they are still here, they are still trying to help and get the wounded out. most of the folks that are wounded are being taken to the

abbott area to a local high school. and that is where they are being tree jogged. triaged. they are setting that up for a resource center for people to be evacuated to. they are evacuating the area based on the on going danger of the fires that were still there. some are still going on. they got most of them under control, but they are trying to move people out and get them evacuated out of the area still. i just talked to my commander on the ground there in the scene. he is telling me he has seen extreme devastation in homes, in some of the businesses. they are still getting injured folks out and they are evacuating people from their homes. at this point, we don't know a number that have been killed. i will confirm there have been fatalities. i think we will see those fatalities increase as we get toward the morning. numerous injured have been moved from the scene to the

hospitals. we have taken them into our city limits and into waco and hillcrest and providence hospital where they are being treated jie. can you say the names again. >> hillcrest hospital is our primary trauma care center. the majority of the injured were taken there. the overflow was taken to providence hospital as well inside waco. at this time we are still trying to evacuate some of the homes. we are going house to house, business to business, and we are seeing quite a bit of devastation in that area. what they are trying to do is move people away still. they are having to be very cautious because there is structural damage to homes and to businesses. we have to be very cautious because of there being it was lines and gas mains. our utility systems are here and they have entered the area and they are cutting off the main flow of gas, metro gas.

they are cutting off power so we don't have secondary fire from electricity-sparked fires and things along that line. >> as you heard from the press conference, we are still hours away from learning unfortunately how many people did die as a result of that blast. we do know that search and rescue and search and recovery efforts are still underway during these early morning hours . we also know the mayor should be speaking hopefully in a couple hours. we are hearing from the governor, rick perry, he released a statement reading "we are monitoring developments and gathering information as details continue to emerge about this incident. we have also mobilized state resources to help local authorities. our thoughts and prayers are with the people of west and the first responders on scene." also later today we know a team of federal investigators will be heading to central texas to investigate this plant fire and explosion. we know that u.s. chemical safety board is deploying, quote, unquote, a large

investigation team to the city to probe the cause of the blast. to wrap up the press conference that we ier is that 0 p.m. firefighters were alerted of the fire. the blast did take place about two hours later. we know firefighters had the fore sight to get as many people evacuated in the nearest vicinity as possible. we know they evacuated apartments. we though they evacuated a nursing home. we know they evacuated homes and businesses nearby. that being said, it remains a very dangerous situation. that chemical inside of the plant is called anhydrous ammonia. it is concentrated. it is toxic. it is very dangerous. as you know from the plume from the pictures we have seen it can ignite that a fire storm. people reporting could see and feel the blast for miles away. we spoke with some folks who thought it was an earthquake. they were 20 miles away from that location. as we mentioned authorities

will spend the remainder of the morning going door-to-door and house to house and making sure people are safe. if everyone is out of the home they will be marking it with an x. that being said there are folks who still can't go back to their home and won't be able to do so for some time. with the wind shifting from the south to the north we can anticipate more people will be evacuated. we will take a break thousand, but stay tuned to fox newschannel. we will have more updates for you after the break.

what we are being told right now is we have another tank that has caught fire and is possibly about to explode. we are having to evacuate this area right here and get everybody out of the area. >> i did not get close enough to see the damage, but the damage is very extensive.

>> and our coverage from west, texas continues. the devastation continues. joining us on the phone is todd from fox news radio. todd, we have been speaking throughout the evening. what is unbelievable if your reporting is that the blast that took place last night at the fertilization plant registers as an earthquake. it exemplifies how big the blast was. >> it certainly did. it was a 2.0 according to the geological survey. the blasting nod out homes and businesses in a four-block area around the blast zone. the troubling part of the story, more than seven hours now since the blast, and they are still searching for survivors, pulling individuals out of the rubble of what used to be their homes and their businesses. it is going to be a very long morning. they are telling us that there are fatalities.

they are not telling us how many people may have died. we do know close to 200 people now have been injured. some of those people seriously. we also understand, elizabeth, that some of those injured are in fact the elderly and children. >> well, i can't thank you enough for joining us throughout the evening, todd. we will continue to watch the situation like you said. we can't anticipate some pretty grim pictures when folks begin to wake up. thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thanks, elizabeth. joining us now on the phone is brett esrock who is the ceo of the providence health center in waco. he has been helping families locate other family members through the night. brett, i know there are a lot of folks out there worried they can't get in touch with loved ones. one of the things you mentioned earlier is to be patient. that people are getting treatment. do you still want that message to be going out? >> good morning, elizabeth. yes, that's still the message out here.

the good news is we are not seeing a lot of patients arrive at the hospital, so things seem to have stable -- stabilized for us and our neighboring hospital as well. we seem to be in a little better place, but i'm sure there is a long day and tomorrow and weeks ahead for the folks out in west, texas, and so our hearts go out to them and all of our prayers from everybody here in waco. >> now, i know you mentioned earlier, how many patients have you seen throughout the evening? you are just one of the hospitals, one of the facilities getting patients. what do their injuries look like? >> tonight we saw 65 patients come in from west texas and the majority came from minor to moderate injuries. we were fortunate with the patients that came our way. many of them having cuts and abrasions and a few broken bones and quite a few of them had some breathing issues that needed some treatments. obviously from chemical

inhalation and a few head injuries. fortunate they were minor in nature and we were -- we did have to admit a dozen of those patients tonight. they will be with us at least tonight and then we will reevaluate them in the morning. the one critical patient we did bring in has been upgraded to stable. we are thankful for that as well. >> we thank you very much for joining us in these early morning hours. our thoughts and prayers are with you, the first responders and the victims of the situation. we appreciate you joining us this morning. best of luck to you. >> thank you, elizabeth. >> and for folks trying to reach their loved ones if they know they are at providence it is 254-761-7200. and for folks who are at hillcrest hospital, that is another hospital where families are going. that number is 254-202-1100. as we have been mentioning all morning, this is an on going situation. there is still a lot of danger lurking. first responders are still

going from house to house. this is a search and recovery and search and rescue mission at this time. there is an eight to ten-block radius of the plant that does remain evacuated. authorities tell us there is a chance they could evacuate other areas because of a shift in the wind pattern. the toxic fumes coming from the ammonia could shift into other neighborhoods. at this time we will continue our coverage and keep you posted and go to fox and friends first who are starting at 4:30. stay tuned. we will keep you updated and of course if you want all of the breaking news, go to fox news.com. stay with us. we will have more news after the break.

good morning. we begin with a fox news alert for you. terror as a massive blast rips a fertilizer plant near waco, texas. the horrifying moment caught on cell phone video. take a look. >> are you okay? >> i can't hear. >> i can't hear. get out of here. please get out of here. >> just the sound of terrified children there after that fiery explosion which leveled dozens of homes and businesses within a five-block radius. at this hour emergency crews still moving people out of the area.

at least 170 people were hurt and police are confirming that there are fatalities. they will not give a number at this point. they do expect the number to rise. >> at this point, we don't know a number that have been killed. i will confirm there have been fatalities. i think we will see the fatalities increase as we get toward the morning. >> the next press conference is set for sex:00 >> set for 6:00 a.m. eastern time. >> good morning. >> let's go to a closer look. >> we have casey live with the latest for us. hello, casey. >> heather and patti ann, good morning to you. what a long night it has been. it is just beginning as we expect the sunrise to happen in a few hours. only then will we get a better feel for just how much damage was done with this blast.

it happened about 8:00 local time last night. that is about 9:00 eastern. the sun was already pretty much going down and on its way down. really once the helicopters got up in the sky it was really hard to see just how much of a neighborhood was leveled. we are hearing the damage is quite significant. some of the people on the ground here have called it a war zone. they have been in there and they have seen up close and personal the damage for themselves. i know we just showed you this youtube video moments ago, and we really cannot show it enough. a man was just videotaping what was originally a fire, and then happened to catch the explosion on camera. it is making the rounds on youtube. let's show you again. >> are you okay this. >> i can't hear. >> cover your ears. >> get out of here. please get out of here.

>> you can hear a child there in the vehicle pleading for him to get out of there. you can only imagine how scary that must have been. the concussion from the blast literally blew him back. it almosted looked like he dropped his iphone or smart phone or whatever he was using to record that. but just absolutely incredible when you talk about the power of this blast. in fact, the u.s. geological survey said that it registered 2.1 on the richter scale. the nearest seismograph was about 23 miles away. initial reports came in, and people thought it was an earthquake. that is how badly the ground shook when that blast happened. now you see that there was a fire burning there, and then the explosion. we understand from first responders, firefighters on the ground that that's what they were doing. there was a fire already burning at this fertilizer plant. the cause of the fire unknown, but the firefighters were right up there, and they were

trying to get it under control. in the latest press conference held an hour ago, a spokesperson with the waco police department was saying that the fire was burning near some anhydrous ammonia tanks and there was concern because it was obviously burning near the volatile chemicals. the next thing you know, boom, the explosion. now, as far as the fatalities, there were early report frtz very director of emergency management here that the fatalities could be in the neighborhood of 70 people. 70 people. but throughout the night as there have been press conferences and as you heard they would not confirm that for us. a very fluid situation and one we have our eye on closely, guys. >> casey, thank you. they did have a little notice because there was a fire before the explosion. they did evacuate some people. it is 36 after the hour. our coverage of the fertilizer plant explosion in west, texas continues. >> coming up, we will check in

with the hospital treating many of the victims. stay tuned to fox news for the latest. we are covering this west, texas fertilizer plant explosion. we will be right back.

we are watching breaking news in the town of west, texas. it is a small town about 2800 people where a fertilizer plant has exploded. 50 to 70 is houses reportedly leveled and an apartment complex of 50 units also damaged. people are being evacuated from the scene. a middle school affected and a nursing home affected. 130 residents there and many in wheelchairs evacuated from the scene. joining us is brett esrock. he is the ceo of providence hospital in waco where many of the injured have been taken.

thank you for joining us. >> good morning. >> how many injuries have you been treating so far? >> so far tonight i think the worst is behind us. we have seen about 65 patients. >> and what are their injuries? >> well, they range from one patient that came in with critical injuries who has since been upgraded to stable to the majority of our patients coming in with minor and moderate injuries ranging anywhere from lacerations and cuts and abrasions to some with a few broken bones. quite a few are requiring breathing treatments for chemical inhalation. so some respiratory distress there as well and a few head injuries. >> that's what we are hearing that the injuries vary as you said. many, many people experienced their car windshields blowing out or windows and doors of their home blasting out. people getting cuts and abrasions from those types of injuries, and some crushing injuries as well. in addition as you mentioned,

the material that was burning and that exploded inside this fertilizer plant contains toxic fumes and there are many people complaining of breathing problems. are these types of injuries potentially going to be long-term or something that is temporary? >> don't know the chemical compound that well, so really can't ascertain the long-term impact of what would have happened by breathing those chemicals in. we did treat all of those patients, the majority of them were stable. many were discharged from the hospital. >> i'm sorry to interrupt, but we understand the chemical is anhydrous ammonia. >> that's correct. >> and it is a gas that can cause severe burns along with respiratory issues. exposure in high concentrations can lead to death. have you dealt with any burns do you know as a result of the anyhydrous ammonia as well? >> at this point we are not aware of any burns related to

the anhydrous ammonia. >> you said you didn't receive any new pay patients. they are going door-to-door trying to find anyone who might not have been evacuated. there was a fire that started 6:00 p.m. local time and when the fire officials arrived they realized there was a potential for explosion and they immediately set about evacuating the local apartment complex and the nursing home and some of the houses, but they are still looking because they say the radius was very large of people affected and they are still looking for people that might be trapped in their homes. but you are not getting in any new patients hour by hour at this point? jay -- >> at this point we are not getting additional patients we are aware of. we will remain on alert throughout the night. we have capabilities of accepting more patients throughout the night and into the morning hours. >> all right, and no fatalities at your hospital? >> no fatalities at our

hospital. >> brett esrock of providence hospital in the local area there. thank you for joining us. >> thank you very much. the explosion packing an extremely powerful force as we have been reporting people as far away as 30 miles away felt and heard the blast. elizabeth has been covering the story all nightlong, and she joins us now with the latest information that she has been able to get. elizabeth? >> heather, we have been following this all night. west is 80 miles from dallas. the folks i spoke with overnight, some of them about dallas. some of them about 20 miles from west texas still felt the blast. a lot of them hotel managers, people living in their homes. twhent out into the street. other neighbors felt the blast as well. they initially thought it was an earthquake. social media helped them figure out the blast was coming from this explosion in west texas. many folks in that small tight

knit community work at west that home is about 130 units. all of which was actively being evacuated when the blast happened around 8:00 p.m. it did in fact level a four-block radius in the town which is now evacuated. we heard from a first responder describing the scene. listen here. >> well, we heard the explosion so we went ahead and hurried up and got into town. as we rolled into town it was a situation where we pulled up to the retirement home because we knew they would need help. all of the windows were blown out and the doors gone. >> heather, patti ann, it will be a longtime before we gather the gravity of the situation as search search and rescue efforts are going on. >> elizabeth, thank you. and our coverage continues. we are going to continue to follow everything happening as we search for answers in this explosion. it is in the town of west, texas. >> another live report from the scene coming up after the

break. stay right here with the fox newschannel for the very latest.

>> this is a fox news lart for you. you are watching fox and frie"f friends first". you are watching a blast at a fertilizer plant west of texas. we know that 200 people are injured. the number of fatalities it is unknown. we do know there are fatalities. reporter calbert collins was at an evacuation center nearby. she joins us live. are you there? >> i am. >> i understand you are located in dallas 75 to 85 miles away

from west texas. >> we were sent to the evacuation center. colleagues were sent right away when the blast -- right after the fire happened and the subsequent explosion. we went to the evacuation scene because we were anticipating several00 people. this is a town of only 3,000 people. the whole town was told to evacuate. they had so many first responders they were turned away. we tried to go with the folks into a neighboring town of abbott where they shut down the whole school and had evacuees, volunteers including teachers and students ready to kind of receive these folks. they had 100 cots and food but

only one came in. >> that is interesting. were there any first responders on the scene? any question as to why only one person showed up? >> i think basically people were scattered for about 50 miles. some people went to a major hospital in dallas that's where major burn unit was and is. a lot of people were scattered hospitals within a 60 mile radius so many people went to a relative's or friends and family at nearby towns. these are small towns. they wanted to stay with friends or family rather than at a gym. >> the blast was felt as far as 40 miles away 2.1 on the richter scale. people at the evacuation site

say it was five miles away. did you speak to any one who felt it or heard it or did you smell anything at that site? >> when we were driving from dallas this is an hour due south of dallas to give a geographic reference. we did smell some kind of ammonia in the atmosphere. it wasn't too strong because we were 10 miles away west but the volunteers were at home cooking dinner kind of relaxing in their evening getting ready for school to start this morning and heard this big sound. even the school where the evacuation shelter was had a little damage piled together and caused debris to fall down into the brand new school. >> what are you hearing from first responders at this point as we wrap up with you here? we understand they are still

trying to rescue people from the scene, have you heard that as well? >> that is exactly what we have heard that they are going to do another round for the 50 or 75 homes in the blast to make sure there were no other survivors. that's what we are waiting to hear from. >> calvert collins reporting live. >> stay with us. a lot more on the explosion of the fertilizer plant coming up.

anhydrous. >> you are watching "fox & friends first". our coverage of the fertilizer plant explosion in west texas continues. unknown people are dead, but police are confirming fatalities and at least 100 people are injured. joining us on the phone is denise day. she is a charge nurse at the west haven rest which is a nursing home. she was home 23 miles away and she felt the explosion as she went back to work to help. denise, a very difficult day i

am sure already. what happened in your end? >> i got home around 7:35 that evening, and was home about 10 minutes and we heard this large boom, and it shook my windows, i thought it was thunder, but my husband turned on our scanner and it was going hey wea-- hey wire. it said the west nursing home was hurt it was exploding. get i had to go back. i felt the need to go back. when we got there i wasable to get up to the nursing home parking lot and i did see into the activity area on the sidewalk and one of the guys -- all i could see was darkness and

they said you can't come in. i said where do i need to go to help? all i saw was just debris every where. the ceiling was falling down, windows were busted out. i even saw lamp shades in the street. >> but no people were still in there, correct? from what police are saying once the fire started at around 6:00, firefighters responded, they instantly recognized the danger he have a fire at a fertilizer plant and the danger of the anhydrous ammonia and they evacuated the nursing home. 133 patients were taken out. were there any injuries at that nursing home? >> there were some injuries. we did get everybody evacuated. we did get them to other nursing homes, to the hospitals, waco providence, hillcrest and the ones that were cleared, a lot of

them were able to go to other nursing homes and some were able to go home with their families. >> there were some injuries to nursing home patients, what were the injuries? >> from what i understand there was one resident that had a broken femur. mostly cuts, minor cuts, abrasions, things like this from the glass. >> how did they sustain these injuries? >> ma'am? >> did they sustain these injuries in the blast? >> basically the windows imploded and beds were up against the wall by windows in the room. >> so there were some people still there at the time of the explosion? >> yes. i am sure that rescue people were making sure the home was evacuated. i then went to triage down at the community center and they

referred us back to the football field. i helped triage. i helped move residents, people to where they needed to go, accounted for residents making sure that the residents were accounted for. >> denise day thank you so much for joining us. denise day a nurse at the nursing home right in the vicinity of this fertilizer explosion. good luck to you today. >> thank you. >> so brave to go back and try to rescue more people at the nursing home and try to pull them to safety. we want to talk a little bit more about the injuries that have been afflicted so far possibly any additional injuries that could come. dr. mark seigel joins us now with insight as to what type of injuries the hospitals in west texas are dealing with right now. thank you for coming in early and joining us dr. seigel. we are hearing the majority of the injuries are blast related orthopedic injuries, broken

bones, lacerations due to glass that was blown out from the impact. how will doctors initially treat these injuries? >> this is anhydrous ammonia that's why you are having this blast. when will you see patients come in having fallen from this possibly being hit with glass the first thing they want to do is identify if there is glass they have to remove, if there are any fractures that have to be treated right away. they want to look to see if there was exposure to anhydrous ammonia which is a highly toxic gas that is irritating to the eyes and the lungs. if it can get to the lungs it can be very toxic to the lungs. you want to flush everything out with oxygen, with air, with water if there has been direct exposure to anhydrous ammonia. the good news is within 24-hours you won't see any