tragedy? tragedy in texas. >> treating the wounded and

that breaking news is in texas in the city where a fertilizer plant exploded. >> hundreds of hurt taken to a football field turned into a triage center. >> several people have been killed in this massive blast and fire that raged for hours. >> this blast has rocked the sound of west, a community 80 miles south of dallas. john alston is monitoring the latest developments from the newsroom. >> the danger has not passed as fumes are lingering in the area and an emergency room doctor said earlier at least two emt firefighters had been killed. officials expect many more

fatalities. are more than a hundred people have been hurt and taken to local hospitals. the flames were already raging and firefighters were pouring water on the fertilizer plants when disaster struck. the massive explosion could be felt more than 40 miles away. in the immediate area the results are devastating. the mayor of west texas believes 60 to 80 homes are leveled or seriously damaged. >> i can tell you i was there. i walked to the blast area and searched some houses earlier tonight and massive is. just like iraq. just like the murrah building in oklahoma city. it exploded so you can imagine what kind of damage we are looking at there. >> fire tore through a nearby middle school and the explosion rocked a nursing home spraying elderly residents with glass and other debris. about 130 people had to be evacuated from the home. they were treated at a triage

center set up at a school athletic field near the fertilizer plant. >> i had to get to the nursing home. nobody getting them out. it was blown. the apartments across the street was blown. >> a lot of chaos right now. trying to protect these businesses. all of the glass is gone out of the front. trying to evacuate because there is still a danger there. >> reporter: search and rescue crews are working through the night. >> we are there and searching the area and making sure it is safe for any other people around there and the firefighters are trying to to be safe and go back in. there is a lot of wind blowing and changing the area and there are little small flames and they don't want to get the firefighters hurt or injured in the blast area.

>> one area firefighters cannot get to is the smoldering west fertilizer plant. to make matters worse there is now a storm approaching the area of west texas near waco. winds are shifting so authorities are now bracing for the possibility of even more evacuations in other parts of town. search and rescue crews will be spending the night going from home to home looking for victims and survivors. we will be monitoring the situation through this newscast here on abc7. live in the newsroom, abc7 news. >> thanks very much. >> joining us is the task force leader in charge of one of the eight california urban search and rescue teams. >> herald, you have responded to so many of these scenes over the years. give us a sense of what that scene must be like in west texas tonight. >> well, obviously they have a significant fire problem, but they also have a significant evacuation problem. they need to evacuate the

entire city. the blast felt miles away and it is not uncommon with what they are dealing with. a mile to a mile and a half away needs to be completely evacuated so either the school and the triage site that needs to be moved. with the storm coming in they will need evacuation in the community. >> the fire is raging and there are chemicals to contend with and if you talk about the evacuation it complicates the rescue. >> it will complicate it. they swril to make some difficult decisions. they had disasters, one of the worst commercial disasters in the century occurred in 1947 in texas state 1k it resulted in -- and it resulted in 400 fatalities and firefighters

died on two ships that exploded. we remember the murrah building in oklahoma city and that was 4800 pounds of ammonium nitrate that was detonated. whether they are dealing with ammonium nitrate which i am looking at the site on google earth and it looks like there is some granular storage on the site and. -- nitris i'm mown yum and both have their problem. the sense of security they had was it is reported as not flammable. it can ignite at high temperatures. if there was a fire at 1500 degrees plus, it could ignite. and so that may or may not be what happened at that site, but a lot of these blasts and the biggest in the 80s was

the plant that used of -- >> herald, apparently there was a fire they were responding to and then the explosion happened. obviously in terms of rescuing people this would be better if it was not dark. they have many hours of dark to go before dawn. describe how much more challenging it is to do this work in the dark of night. >>- q. i it can be -- >> it can be very challenging. they will need a form of thermal imaging. they need a comprehensive plan to bring in the texas urban search and is rescue task force which is a very good task force in the federal system. it is set up in texas. and they will need to come up with a larger game plan using dogs and other techniques for perm accountability -- for personal accountability tomorrow. obviously they will have to try and find out who was in these homes that they have. i can see the residential area that is in close proximity to

the site. fortunately -- if you can call it fortunate the school next to the site was empty at 8:00 at night. they did catch a break there, but they will have a secondary operation that will last days in terms of large areas searched. >> we are hearing that homes have literally collapsed and that sides of apartment complexes have been blown off. there has to be so much done to get through all of these different buildings. >> that's right. it is no different than a hurricane that comes in like we saw in katrina in the gulf area where it is going to blow the buildings over. so whether there are people -- i'm assuming at 8:00 at night there are people in the homes. whether they can evacuate that is questionable. and whether or not the earn personnel they have there -- and whether or not the personnel they have there part could be lost, but their ability to respond is

compromised. they are using voluntary personnel. they will not h a large contingent of that personnel. what is the risk of the secondary explosions based upon the weather and the fire problems. herald, thank you so much for taking the time to come on with us. this is the menlo park fire chief on the phone with us. he has enormous experience traveling around the country and the world involved in search and rescue operations. thanks so much. the force of the blast was felt for at least a 50-mile radius. one police officer in a town about 40 miles away responded to the disaster after he felt the explosion. >> when he arrived in the town of west he was stunned by just the widespread nature of the devastation. >> what did it look like? >> destroyed. the farming complex devoid.

the nursing home, the school, a lot of homes. >> when you say destroyed, what does that mean? leveled? >> yes. a lot of damage. >> herald was mentioning firefighters in texas are concerned tonight about a pungent gas used as fertilizer and the west fertilizer company reported to have 54,000 pounds on hand. this can cause serious health problems. hydrous means without water. >> the hydrous i'm mown yaw can cause dehydration and severe burns if it combines with water in the body. exposure to high concentrations can be fatal. >> and we want to share photos a viewer mailed to our sister station to wfaa in dallas. that was the damage done in one home by the plant. >> again the mayor says at

least 80 homes were either leveled or badly damaged by this explosion. here you can see another photo , the result of the concussion wave that happened. >> speaking of the power of this, it registered as 2.1 earthquake. people felt it 50 miles away. >> witnesses say every house within about four blocks is blown apart. imagine this thing actually registered with the same force as an earthquake. 75 to 100 houses destroyed. >> we know at least dozens of homes also right near this area destroyed as well as an apartment building that a police officer in the area described as just a skeleton remaining of this building. within that apartment complex we know there were 50 to 60 units. >> a nursing home and a middle school were on fire. they evacuated the nursing home. about 140 people were in the nursing home. witnesses saw many people injured. the witness said they did not see too many life-threatening

injuries at the nursing home. people are trapped in collapsed buildings. >> that means emergency responders are going house to house searching for the injured. again it is dark out there. power is off. it is a very difficult task for these rescue crews that are trying to make their way through the devastation. >> 2600 people affected by the evacuation order. that's a lot of people. keep in mind this town, west, in texas 80 miles south of dafl dahl is -- of dallas is 2800 in population. the evacuation could shift with the wind depending on how that goes. the american red cross has arrived in growing numbers. they are finding shelters for the evacuees. >> stay with us. we will be back with much more on the

we will return to the breaking news in west, texas where there has been a deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant. anne anne john a -- >> john alston has more for us now. >> search and rescue crews are going home to home to find victims and survivors of this massive blast. at least two firefighters are killed and more than a hundred

people are injured. half of the town of 2500 people in west texas have been evacuated. the other half may have to leave if winds shift overnight. firefighters cannot get to the actual blast zone at the fertilizer plant because of fears of another explosion. the i'm mown yum nitrate -- immonium nitrate is flammable. there are 700 first responders on the scene. a short time ago the mayor of that town, west texas, spoke to reporters. >> there is a lot of people that got hurt. there is a lot of people that i am sure are not going to be here tomorrow. we are going to search for everybody and make sure everybody is accounted for. that's the most important thing right now. >> as we said, at least two firefighters killed and more than a hundred injured. approximately 60 to 80 homes have been leveled.

they have been leveled or seriously damaged. they are hoping to find victims and survivors. abc7 news. >> all right, john, thank you. >> now, nightline will update the explosion in a special report at 12:35. we will keep you updated. and an update on the boston bombings. they have pinpointed two possible suspects in connection with the boston marathon bombings. the images of the two men were seen near the finish line. investigators also say a man who may be one of the suspects is is seen on surveillance tape from an apartment store dropping off a bag at the site of the bombings. the fbi was scheduled to give a news conference about a development in the case, but that was called off after a bomb scare at the federal courthouse. three people died and 180 were wounded in the explosions on monday. breaking news in san francisco tonight. a police officer shoots someone. abc7 news reporter alan wang is live in paw terror -- potrero hill with more. what do you have? >> it happened near southern

heights about 9:45. police got a call, a 9-1-1 call from a man who said he had just stabbed his brother-in-law. they heard the victim in the background asking for help. when police arrived they saw the victim bleeding in the doorway and his brother-in-law standing near him with a hammer in his hand. when he refused to put down the hammer, police say they shot and killed him. the stabbing victim was taken to san francisco general where he is in serious condition tonight. a large knife described to be like a machete was found nearby. and that is the latest from potrero hill. alan wang, reporting live from san francisco, back to you. >> thank you. let's shift and talk about the weather forecast as we inch closer to the weekend. >> examine sandhya patel is here with the latest jie. you can see why we are seeing a warming trend. temperatures are up a few degrees and as we look at live doppler 7hd, the skies are clear and the temperatures are running mild. we are going to see those

numbers rising over the next few days as the high pressure gets closer to the coast and warm and dry pattern is developing. that means we will see even warmer weather heading into the weekend. here is a look at the week ahead for san jose. 76 tomorrow afternoon. getting into the upper 70s to the low 80s for the weekend. by monday we are looking at 88 degrees. slowly tapering for tuesday and wednesday. we are expecting a warming trend. first thing tomorrow morning it will be a cool start, low 40s to low 50s. you might want to grab a thin layer for the morning. clear conditions as i mentioned and cool. by the afternoon, sunshine and mild weather across the entire bay area. 64 in half moon bay and 68 in san francisco. we will get you close to 80 degrees around santa rosa and napa and 75 in oakland. head out toward antioch and it is 78 degrees. palo alto, san jose, mid70s along with santa cruz. a little warmer than today and the breezes are even lighter. here is a look at the

accu-weather seven-day forecast. you will notice the temperatures continue to come up at least ding the inland areas. low 80s on friday and saturday. low 60s at the coast. friday and saturday we are expecting some low clouds to return to the coast. the coastal area won't see much warming. mid60s to mid80s and by monday we are looking at low 90s in the warmest inland communities. it will feel like um iser. mid60s coast side. the temperatures will trend lower as we head into tuesday and then holding on wednesday, carolyn and dan. >> thank you. a day of celebration was capped off by a night of spectacular entertainment at the new waterfront home of san francisco's explore for yum. abc7 is proud to be the official tv partner of the explore for yum. the iconic science museum opened its doors on pier15 and tonight delighted the public with a laser art show that was pro yected from the roof of our building. until this spring they were at the palace of fine arts when

it opened in 1969 and now has a brand-new home. it is fabulous. >> cool time lapse view of that light show this evening. i believe it goes on -- i think it just wrapped up at 11:00. >> it wrapped up a few minutes ago. but it was all nightlong. >> well, larry beil is up next

good evening. the warriors had a couple of goals tonight. both missions accomplished. curry didn't shoot well, 5 of 16, but in the s quarter history made. 273 breaking the single season record. curry hit four tonight to finish with 272. andrew bogus back in the lineup for the last game of the regular season. a nice pass behind the back to harrison barnes. in the fourth quarter curry to beat the clock. the warriors win it 99-88. they lock up the 6-spot and they will open up the playoffs against the three seed and the nuggets are in denver on saturday. to baseball and giants and brewers and the giants didn't get a hit until the 6th inning and then scored three times. hunter pence a slow roller up

the middle. it ties it at three apiece. that's the way it stayed in the will 9th. a 29-year-old rookie coming through with the bases loaded and deep to left. and that ends it as the brew crew win a score of 4-3. a's and astros and the novato native started for houston and he was not around for long. they bat around and score six runs. josh reddic who has been slumping with a two-run double. abc7 sports brought to you by river rock caw seen though. >> larry, thanks. and we will be right back with an update on the texas explosion. >> stay here with us.

here is a look at your wake up weather first thing in the morning. cool start, clear skies, light wind, temperatures in the mid40s to the low 50s at

5:00 a.m. by 8:00 a.m., upper 40s to mid50s. mike will be here 4:30 to 7:00 a.m. carolyn, dan? >> thank you very much. >> now a recap of tonight's breaking news from texas. >> a fertilizer plant exploded in the small town of west about an hour south of dallas. people up to 50 miles away could feel it. >> emergency crews are bracing for the possibility that dozens may be dead. we do have confirmed right now that two firefighters have been killed, at least 200 people injured. many of them with burns and cuts. >> and dozens of those, at least 40 we understand have very serious injuries and maybe critical injuries. every building within five blocks of the plant is either severely damaged or destroyed. crews will check homes overnight for people trapped in the rubble. it is not clear yet what caused the explosion. >> we know a fire broke out at the plant and that's what investigators are trying to figure out what sparked that. this blast was similar to a 2.1 magnitude earthquake.

>> it is just shocking as you can imagine. imaginth fce of the blast. it was felt up to again 50 miles away. 75 to 100 houses in that immediate area of west, texas have been destroyed. >> and an apartment building across the street from the fertilizer plant is described as a skeleton now and there are at least 50 units in that building. >> a nursing home and a middle school were on fire. they had to evacuate about 140 patients from the nursing home. people are trapped in collapsed buildings and no doubt because it is dark it will be difficult to get to them overnight, very difficult when there is no light out. >> and that mines -- that means emergency responders are going door-to-door searching for injured people and trying to do what they can to help in these very difficult conditions. >> this is a small town of 2800 people, 2600 people have been affected by an evacuation order and told to get out of the immediate area. the evacuation could shift

with the wind. we will have to see what the weather does overnight. >> the american red cross are on the scene. they are helping to find shelter for they vac you fer -- for the evacuees. as the morning comes we will have a better indication of exactly how devastating this blast has been to this community. >> and it is probably going to look like a hurricane came through there when we see it during the daytime. there you can see some livestock in there. this is in a rural area of texas. we will bring you updates on the breaking story on the abc7 morning news at 4:30 in the morning. >> and you can get updates on abc7news.com and follow us on twitter at abc7 news bay area for the very latest developments. >> in the meantime thank you for being here. appreciate your time. dan ashley. >> and i'm carolyn johnson. 1r* a good night, everyone.