about the tension impacts of toxins in the s.m.b. he was there aware of what happened at the think plants let's just listen to what he said realize or as we know is extremely combustible so it's been used in bombs and so it's manufacture is extremely delicate and can easily if handled wrong or if handled in safely can lead to explosion so we have to assume at this point that it is such a chemical explosion that happened there at the plant when you're handling chemicals like this there is a possibility that there can be chemical contamination that could be it would need to be cleaned up in the aftermath of the explosion so they'll undoubtedly be extensive monitoring of the areas around the plant in order to make sure that whatever chemicals have been spread around can be cleaned up to reduce future toxicity to the residents with the kinds of winds that blow in such big intense fires there will be airborne distribution. so there's nothing that can be done

while the event just happening what will be done is is assessment and cleanup in the aftermath currently people are being evacuated because of the dangers to for further explosions for fire to spread and also for spread around of some of the chemicals from the plant however those will almost certainly be deposited close to the plant and it will be possible to get in there make assessments and to clean up some of the area in the future so those are the primary dangers. so they are some of the concerns now face the emergency services and trying to contain the toxic fumes that have emanated from this fertilizer plant blew up blew up in from attic fashion a few hours ago causing huge amounts of devastation to the town of west confirmed fatalities so the police are saying at the moment i haven't given a number although local media have been reporting it's somewhere around the figure of seventy well let's talk to our teacher i'm on who's at the scene for us at the

moment can you here is the moment. here where we've just been listening to the press conference given by sergeant patrick swanton from the way k. police department. he described the devastation that he saw when he. first arrived with emergency services at the scene what's the situation at the moment. right. much like you know we've been here. seen and we're currently at community. behind which what you being you. treat and transport patients are your pictures showed. probably more than one hundred patients here no one here would be able to give me a good number but most of them have been transported to area hospitals with varying injuries. complaining of regulatory issues like you were

mentioning earlier about the danger of traffic. paint a picture for us about the devastation that was cool as we we've heard that many buildings were affected including an old person's home the police and emergency service is it going from building to building trying to pull people out what are you seeing at the moment are you able to see anything. right. the media is being kept very far away and i myself. try to get closer to the scene and we were immediately pushed back by police. quite a distance away i'm not able to smell any of the. moments but for the time being this appears to be a place where people are evacuating too but state trooper who we spoke to a few minutes ago said that they are still being very cautious about the other part of town whether they might be exposed to some of these talks which as you mentioned

. could be changing very high winds right now so a lot of concern that there may have to be more evacuations but it does seem like most of the patients who were most critically injured and brought to the tree. have been transported but it is presumed that there are still many more people in the rubble given the fact that at least. the explosion at least had a devastation radius at least two blocks and the damage spread much further than that. ok thank you amount for that. as we've been hearing the weather playing a big part in this. and as you explained. this could widen the whole disaster is a huge it could just give you some perspective we had that guest who talked about his experience with fukushima i was actually in the fukushima disaster zone as well and one thing that we discovered and actually broke the story internationally right

here on our t.v. is because of the wind patterns because of the weather we were in the town of fukushima itself which is sixty kilometers from the edge of the exclusion zone in a full eighty kilometers from the actual reactor that first reactor which has most of the main problems and we found radiation levels there one thousand times what was considered to be an acceptable level and why is that it's because the wind in the rain blew that radiation to fukushima into a town that is considered safe but a bull in fact that we found it on a place on a path where kids walk to school and that rainwater had washed out radiation in infused it in the mud there in the town of of so as not this time goes out we could be getting get out let's just stress that is radiation and this this is talking about ammonia can you tell us a little bit about that and the dangers that indeed it is a very pungent gas according to the c.d.c.

in the united states that is used as a fertilizer but it is very noxious and very toxic in terms of its suffocating properties so that's what they're worried about being released from this this fertilizer plant is this an ammonia very dangerous stuff and so if it's right now blowing. having a south wind blowing it and then they're worried about it switching direction they could be looking at an entirely different area than expected being affected by this cloud as well and we just listened a couple of minutes ago to sergeant swanson from the why. police department he says that at the moment the still pulling bodies from there were things that are being flattened he said to be a great understanding of the devastation that's been cool coast in the morning when this daylight but he also did touch on the fact there's been a huge response from emergency services from surrounding areas and you told us early that this is something that's long been coordinated in prepared for indeed

when a situation happens anywhere in the united states law enforcement agencies have contingency plans in place and whether it be local state depending on how big the emergency is how big the response level comes into play and in this case we've heard stories of departments responding from eighty miles away to this particularly disaster so you have local state county officials all coming together and coordinating and working together and this is something that they've trained for through many years ok well we are just joined by keith hopkins a spokesperson for the providence medical center in. mr hopkins are you able to harris. yes fraction can you tell us what's the latest situation where you are. of the casualties and the injuries people have received. at our facility we are one of the chiefs at least receiving the. the patients from the

from the blast right now we have seen sixty five patients one of which is critical the majority of the ones we've seen have had already broken bones head injuries and a lot of them had a head and hydrous ammonia inhalation from the from the fertilizer plant what is the effect of that inhalation. it should be short term it's treated properly we have had a massive response from our medical our doctors our nurses our respiratory therapist and they have been able to to treat and release most of the ones who have who have had the exposure to the to the ammonia we have had twelve admissions of the sixty five patients we have seen and intensive how you've been able to come at any stage with the hospital overwhelmed will have all of the contin

contingency plans that are going to play if you prepare for the. week prepare. every day for disasters i will say i have been here for thirty years i have never seen anything to the to this magnitude but i am very thankful that that we planned for this day and again we do this on a routine basis we have automated call system where where when we see a disaster it automatically rings phones of of our staff and our staff responded in a matter of minutes and in terms of your proximity to the fertilizer plant would have been a scenario that you would have specifically trying full. yes we train for chemical . still trying for. trauma automobile

we train for a variety of different things whether scenarios which is probably the biggest thing we look for in central texas but yes we train for chemical chemical disasters we just listened. to this once and the police department says that he said this is a still pulling people from building and you expecting more and more people to be treated. yes we remain. on full full staff waiting for anything else that might come through. we do know that there was a nursing home that was. that was pretty much destroyed we have gotten some of the elderly folks who have been since transferred to other nursing homes in our area and in other words like they could not go back where they were so there is there is

plans in place to be on on alert for the rest of the evening and on into tomorrow ok mr hawkins thank you very very much for joining us. today to give us an update on what has devastating time the people of western north life away thank you very much it's my pleasure thank you. well some eyewitnesses and survivors of the disaster earlier shared their experience that the chaos at the city. i don't know exactly what happened just now once out joyce and i got down there with him to go check on her kids on that pass the nursing home which their house blew on then i jumped out i would we were on the corner of the nursing home they all started went to the east to work and people were decided well i don't know but we. started got people in there to help and they ran down that hall which was totally

blown out. of all this sitting vice you know for your i got. to her feet from the explosion playing basketball. we've got to there's the cameras in there watching her supposing. we had to dicker here remembers record for the jan fourth verse for pushing back in the strip no one there were. the physical have admission left in the structure of the whole thing at all the worst thing ever seen. those are just some of the eyewitness account of that have been coming out of the town of west which was affected by this devastating blast at a fertilizer plant which flattened dozens of buildings in the nearby area not just the plant itself police are saying at the moment there have been confirmed fatalities they are not giving a number although local media are reporting that death tally could be up to something like seventy and let's cross now to get each. our correspondent in the

united states i'm not sure if you heard that press conference from sergeant patrick swanton but he also did and there have and if it's my understanding is correct maybe you could just confirm this that there was fear of another explosion but it appears that at the plant but it appears that firefighters have managed to put out a blaze that was underneath barrels of chemicals is that your understanding that's right. so i think the most important piece of information that we heard at this briefing with the spokesperson of the police department of the city of wacko is that. the fire is no longer a threat to that it has been contained although. they are worried right now about the high winds about very strong winds spreading toxic chemicals around the area and also it appears that the toxic fumes that are still being released from the

area of the explosion are still hampering rescue efforts and as. the police officer was saying that they're going from door to door looking for people who are in the rubble because the explosion it ripped through a residential area as far as several blocks has flattened a number of buildings he has not confirmed in terms of numbers how many buildings how many but we know that a quite a quite a big residential area was affected although it is a very small town as we understand this town of west texas around twenty twenty eight hundred three thousand people living there apparently but the winds that can carry these chemical. these fumes they can travel far to other residential areas so that is quite a danger for rescue efforts at the moment and they're trying to keep away from what

this police officer was saying they're trying to keep away other people from from coming to the area and now a store as the numbers again in that his other his most repeated response to two questions that the media were asking was out on no as far as they were asking what numbers he did not give any any numbers but as far as we know. at the moment to come two people are confirmed dead in this explosion although the media the local source say there are many more just given the extent just the impact of this explosion there there could could be that number could be much higher but again officials are very cautious with numbers at the moment. they don't confirm any any numbers as we saw from what this police officer from the city of

wacko what was was saying and also as far as the cause of the explosion of course he was asked about that he again did not confirm anything whether whether it was a chemical reaction that caused this explosion or or criminal look to vittie he said we don't know that as of now. there has been speculation from some people about what caused this as you said we do not know we cannot say anything is a statement of fact but let's just listen to world affairs analysts professes that the. he believes the blast is a sign of a major lapse in the u.s. system of maintenance control that's what he said so let's listen to what he told us. it's. another fear of regulation by the state of texas and by the u.s. government at large private corporations that have not to adhere to safety regulations seems like a reprisal of the gulf of mexico oil spill by b.p.

track record shows that america especially if you have texas has consistently been a good internet republican regimes it was arguably jeb bush and now with rick perry rick perry is on record saying that i wake up every morning trying to make government as inconsequential for the people as possible so that government doesn't play a role in regulating industries and in ensuring safety standards you have you know the same issue you know in the soviet union i was sure i mean india that i said that being said it looks like this is another major industry calamity that can be pointed to the failure of the state to regulate for the existing program to happen state failure and yet unfortunately for america it's coming go right on the heels of a recent terrorist attack in boston so it looks like you know sometimes misfortune comes up in a pile and that's what's happening right now and it's revealing some of the weaknesses of the u.s. today and its regulatory architecture for your opinion and more experience for taking your knowledge and bypass potentially what could be the damage. oh i hope

i mean if it's a morning i was there saying i'm not a scientist but i feel that it could last into the here and spread further and further and they may have evacuated. you know certain radius fukushima we saw that in japan again you know the nuclear industry was in. cahoots with the regulators and they got away with a lot of foot shark carts and. you know you say like you know maybe why it's own foolish as the saying goes a lot of these garbage bins dooley's you know try to cut corners in order to balance their sheets and to gain marginal profits but in the process they're bees also in the last of the society and to the global commons is tremendous so i would not like to speculate on what how far if you go and how soon it can be contained but certainly i think the the we need and what you can see you know how to be in

a war footing no try and limit the damage to the actually at the center and not click it spread further and work of course to has the technology and the government emission interest form but the bigger question is are the failure of the starters in the cars we need to prove these people are and to see how these things are going to be considered why do not be rigid why do we keep having gundry just if we want to do ones of the ones in this country and then it goes back to normal so these are some of the core public policy issues of illusion invite the students the need to be saved to do justice to its own people or i wish that that was the view is that i am charity a world affairs analyst there yanni if i could just get eighteen. he mentioned he speculating of course but he's saying that it is perhaps cap and it's growing that is co-owners again and might be responsible just in general terms this is still alive in the states talking a bad safety and what firms thing to make money and the fact that they might cut corners in order to make more. well of course it is

of course it is so and there there is going to be an investigation to determine whether it was a security breach or whether whether someone was responsible for it whether there were violations of any guidelines that they have but as of now we can't say anything it is just too early to to talk about the cause of this kind of thing that we do know that for something like this to happen something had to go wrong and whether or not they will blame somebody for that they're just remains to be seen i just want to mention i want to make this clear as far as the tallit east there are no official confirmed numbers so i just said earlier i said two confirmed deaths there are no confirmed numbers will so ever actually local media say. they say at least seventy people could be dead we been hearing this this these

conflicting reports from the beginning of the coverage of the tragedy and again it is just too early and from what the police officer from the city of west cole when we heard just a little bit earlier in this hour they are very cautious about the numbers we have no numbers as of yet and also also one one note about the firefighters of this the initial group of firefighters that there were spawn that to the call about this the first explosion at the plant there are still reported missing there reported on accounted for. ok thank you very much we understand we will get more details least according to the police sergeant as daybreak follow you some but for the let's talk to another political analyst elias says the use in virginia. mr says he but we've heard

a lot of speculation about this from various people not sure if you want your reaction to what you say. you have said you mean regarding the explosion near waco texas wrote that's right. yes but. it's too early to see the research the causes of the explosion it we know as far as i remember from what i heard that the firefighters were called to that at least ten of these coming cofer to ice reply and it was we she said be tunnels little town of west it when the mouse norfork way court takes us around six pm and then it well there was. yesterday they used it in. eight pm there was this huge explosion it was the result of seventy five homes as far as i know these throated or seriously damage up to a hundred fifty p.

people in there are fatalities but they haven't told us the authorities how many people weren't killed we can't get out so we can see pictures that and of course many people have been saying that at a station at is as if the has unfolded but and tens if causes is not something you feel willing to speculate at the moment what she believed to be the political response to this we haven't heard anything yet from the u.s. government but what she thinks really the response. to the constant well i'm the could be just an accident another possibility stuff you start off a cookie cutter by the people and girl weaves the government through the federal government under we've even used society and they saw what happened in boston if you they said and they decided to cause this as an act of sabotage and to remember you twenty s and the bursary off the far off. and the but i stopped being the end

sect headed by david cornish on april nineteenth one thousand nine hundred fifty eight in we schober seventy people died when their leader then you'd go to jail after they start. do you believe that you have any significance in this. but it's a sign that. there are people who are scrupulous people police side if you. if they don't go into a school to start shooting and killing children then they kind of they could cause this type of sabotage knowing that the takes the structure is going to be group. like can no worse on it we found lots of people injured there and then perhaps a dose and so on and or they wanted all sense of people killed so it's sort of like a breakup of society. in the sense stuff in there are people willing to cause these things he was sure months of damage against society and as

a message against the government but again we still too early to say who did it or if this was just an accident but it's quite significant i'm to be piped up there he stays in near this to april nineteenth it which is the i mean bursary or frequently it's one verse or a little remember on april nineteenth ninety ninety five you know i see the federal building it was blown up by the by the bait and he said i associate it in we share it well you know over a hundred people for remember were killed so i was used what they used to destroy the building where it was fertilizer you know where fertilizers to blow it up you see interesting to see how this plant exploded and close to a cook takes. us a fertilizer plant as well and let's remember that the brush that we get complex was only ninety miles north of waco these plants were least twenty miles north of

waco but like a we can see we can see the correlation we do have to leave it there thank you very much that's political analyst diocese us think he is in virginia thank you for your time. we just heard that from another political analyst some people are making links. to historically what happened in the ninety's can you tell us more certainly if you if you go back the entire incident happened in just north of waco and this town also west is just north of waco in the end of february one thousand nine hundred three david koresh and his cult basically a branch davidian got into a firefight a standoff with a.t.f. federal agents that standoff became known as the siege of waco it lasted for fifty days and then on april nineteenth they had enough of the standoff and david koresh set his compound on fire killing seventy four people including himself in the incident very high profile incident drew a lot of fire at the time and in fact

a lot of people criticize the federal government in how they handled the situation because it had such a large loss of life at the time but brilliant images and what i mean i'm not talking in a good way but of massive flames coming out of that the situation as well so it's easy given the timing and the date and the types of images that we're getting to draw parallels but of course you know we can't say that this is terrorism we can't say that this is. you know faulty safety regulations we're going to wait until that investigation plays out before we can actually have any insight to what just happened here and what you think the american government's response will be to this given the fact this just happened well we do know that the white house the white house has been made aware of the situation and through a spokesperson at the white house they've said that they are monitoring the situation very closely through federal agencies and through the emergency response

teams on the ground so they're being very cautious as well but if you look at the broader picture as to what happened in boston earlier this week what happened at the white house this week when you know the rights and letters were sent there is a heightened tension in the country. so all of these different scenarios will be brought in as things to look at but these people say they know what they're doing when they investigate they're going to go in and they're going to thoroughly look through every bit of evidence and try to find out exactly what happened and whether it's related or whether it's not related as well ok sean thank you for that insight we'll talk to you a bit later on i'm sure but some interesting anyway to hear the. potential reasons and causes the devastation that has happened. with state with news from the u.s. a malicious has gripped america or off the letters laced with poison we're centimes of president obama and see whether officials the deadly packages were intercepted by authorities and a man has been arrested in mississippi in connection with the case fishel say the

suspect is well known as a frequent lesser right it's a long mike is several government offices across the u.s. have also been locked down over suspicious packages the scare comes just days after the deadly boston bombing and the post nine eleven anthrax myla tanks which killed several people authorities say video footage from boston as help pinpoint two potential suspects but they have not been identified and no arrests have been. more news on the devastating blast in waco texas when we come back in a couple of minutes.

the book about international and war in the very heart of moscow. for you thank you you. thank.