kxan reporter is standing by live in west, texas, right now. chris, what are you seeing? >> we're about three-quarters of a mile away from where that plant explosion happened. and one of the windows of this hotel three-quarters of a mile away knocked out but this hotel filled up quickly. people who were evacuated. we've been talking to a few of them, hearing their stories. they say it started as a fire. they were watching the fire, as a lot of curious people would, thinking they were far enough away. but then when that explosion hit, it shook the ground and caused windows to be blown out. it caused homes to come crashing down. it caused that apartment complex that everybody's been saying to come crashing down. i talked to a woman who lived in that apartment complex. she heard the explosion. she looked up, her balance cone started to fall down and she started to run. she ran. she spent the rest of the time to try to get in touch with her friends to see if her neighbors made it out. you hear stories of people being trapped. we really are waiting for the sun to come up just

. >>> joining me now on the phone is chris sedechi who is a reporter for kxan. can you hear me? can. >> what can you tell us about the latest situation? there is an on going huge fire and a potential second explosion of another fertilizer tank. >> yes, we're actually on our way to the scene right now. we're driving up from aus tennessee. austin. west texas sits just about half way between austin and waco. we're hearing that they're wanting to move people out of that area and evacuate i think a five-mile-radius around where the explosion happened. they are worried about the secondary explosion and what you were talk about earlier, potential toxic fumes that could do some more damage. >> as sanjay gupta was saying earlier, it is a multi-problem fire. you have the rescue situation where you have all of these homes that have been flattened, and many of the rescue services can't get to the people inside them. >> yeah. it's one of those things where now that the sun has gone down, we may not know the fullest exat the present time until the sun comes up in the morning. there's one esti

back on the phone now, a reporter from kxan. clearly, since we spoke, the situation is worsening. got a very grim update there from the public health officials. basically, implying that they need to go back in there and just work out how bad this is. >> yeah, i'm getting an e-mail and also updates from some of the crews that we have on the scene. and it sounds like that the press, the media, was taken to an auction barn because they are working on opening up the evacuation route to get people out of there. i know that the epa is sending out on their monitor and on the toxic fumes, they're monitoring the situation. i'm not sure what they've reported yet as far as how dangerous it is to be breathing in the west area right now. but they certainly are monitoring the situation and they're trying to get as many people out of there as they can right now. that's what it sounds like. >> yeah, they made it clear that their priority is people, not property. the real worry being this north wind that's coming in later, which may stop them being able to work on the fire, which could, of course,

chris sedhini from kxan joins us on the phone. chris, you're there in west texas right now.t's happening at the moment? >> well, we're actually at a hotel that has been booked solid for the night. i talked to the hotel management. they said after this explosion, they got a lot of people who obviously, don't have homes for the night. maybe not even once the scene is cleared. there are a few shelters set up in surrounding communities. they are evacuating a five-mile radius around the plant. that is because of the potential for toxic fumes. i did talk to one woman who lived at that apartment complex you were mentioning. she said that this plant has had fires before, being a fertilizer plant, but they've always been real small. that this one that started today was much bigger than any they'd ever seen. still, they were just watching it. >> that's when the apartment building collapsed, she said she just started running. she saw some people with injuries. we don't know yet how many people suffered an injury. we don't know yet what the total fatality count may be. it looks like it