by iran harder simonyan ammonia tank exploding although probably that would have exploded when when the main explosion took place so so i don't think it was caused by an hardness of mine a tank exploding but of course ammonia itself is very toxic it's it's it's a respected tree irritant and it would cause lots of serious response to treat drug problems but then of course it's also produced when ammonium nitrate itself is heated up so if you heat ammonia nitrate to about three hundred fifty degrees it dissociates into ammonia and not discuss it and so these two things would be quite toxic fumes or anybody inhaling them now the texas commission on you by mental quality investigated the west fertilizer plant back in two thousand and six over the concerns of ammonia on site does this tragedy represent any kind of regularity of failure from the side and from the environmentalists themselves. well of course they would have to store ammonia on the site since i'm running and making ammonium nitrate for that and that's what the fertilizer plant does and it may be that the environmental prote

we knew that there was ammonia in there. we realized the volatility of that and how explosive it could be. they immediately started doing 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. 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 in that area. there are victims that were in homes. victims from the nursing home. and there are victims also from an apartment complex. approximately 50-unit apartment complex. some of the photos have been on tv. you see the devastation that's occurred. i can tell you, once they started to trying to clear the injured out, there were a tremendous response from law enforcement agencies, mclennan county sheriff's department, waco p.d., waco fire, mclennan emergency management. and other agencies to assist west at their

by an harder simonyan ammonia tank exploding although probably that would have exploded. when the main explosion took place but of course ammonia itself is very toxic it's it's it's a respected three irritant and it would cause lots of serious a response retract problems but then of course it's also produced when ammonium nitrate itself is heated up so if you heat ammonia nitrate to about three hundred fifty degrees it dissociates into ammonia and nitrite acid and so these two things would be quite toxic fumes to anybody inhaling them but are as i say i don't think that that that that i don't think that that could be the cause of the level of explosive force that we have seen here i mean something very much larger has happened here. and i guess those details will come out in the fullness of time scientists christopher busby there this center this chemical factory had been the center of regs re concerns before but he didn't stop of course obviously what happened on wednesday is take a look at where it is there's a map and that's where the plant is that big area there that'

we also know with ammonia how hard it is to smell it at low levels. at high levels ammonia can be very damaging to your respiratory tract, your nose and throat and cause swelling in your airways and that can be very destructive. at high levels you worry about lung damage and difficulty breathing and need for a lot of respiratory support. >> we're talking about hundreds of people being taken to the waco area for treatment as you mentioned, lacerations, cuts, those kinds of injuries. and these are people who were probably a couple miles from the blast scene. anybody at that blast scene, i don't know if you saw the video we just showed, any chance somebody was fighting a fire and is right up there on those flames could survive something like that? >> well, you know, you never know, and so you want to keep your hope. i have not seen the video of what took place there, but you hope that people who survived the blast itself, if they're evacuated quickly, what you want to do with the exposure to ammonia is get people away from there very quickly, you want to

it's basically anhydrous is a form of storing the ammonia. >> it's not the ammonia you might have underr sink to wipe them down with. you still want to use gloves because you can get a chemical burn from household ammonia. this is a gas, anhydrous ammonia, nitrogen and three hs, doesn't have any water in it. hydrous means without water. anhydrous means if it touches you it will try to get the water out of your skin or eyes or lungs. that's the real threat of it burning you. it's the chemical burn itself. if it's released into the air, it's actually at a point still heavier than air and sink to the ground where the first responders are. so this is the issue there last night. they could actually smell the chemical. a cold front went by last night and into this morning and changed the wind direction significantly. that's the perfect thing that could have actually happened here. you will have breathing difficulty if you breathe too much in. let me just go back to background. i grew up in nebraska. in nebraska they use anhydrous ammonia. it comes in a big long tank looks like a big hot dog,

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 assi

by an harder simonyan ammonia tank exploding although probably that would have exploded. when the main explosion took place but of course ammonia itself is very toxic it's it's it's a respected tree irritant and it would cause lots of serious a trach problems but then it cause it's also produced when ammonium nitrate itself is heated up so if you heat ammonia nitrate to about three hundred fifty degrees it dissociates into ammonia and nitrite acid and so these two things would be quite toxic fumes to anybody inhaling them but i as i say i don't think that that that that i don't think that that could be the cause of the level of explosive force that we have seen here i mean something very much larger has happened here. christopher busby there's all initial thoughts of course from the scientists we've been getting to speak to throughout the day there have been question marks regulatory question marks raised about this plant before there was a safety concern about it let's take a look at where it was in conjunction with the neighborhood around it well as you can see on this

on harder simonyan ammonia tank exploding although probably that would have exploded. when the main explosion took place but of course ammonia itself is very toxic it's it's it's a respected tree irritant and it would cause lots of serious to respond to treat track problems but then of course it's also produced when ammonium nitrate itself is heated up so if you heat ammonia nitrate to about three hundred fifty degrees it dissociates into ammonia and nitrite acid and so these two things would be quite toxic fumes or anybody inhaling them but are as i say i don't think that that that i don't think that that could be the cause of the level of explosive force that we have seen here i mean something very much larger has happened here. right outlined seem to have been closely following the tragedies is the beginning of lining up footage from eyewitnesses gauging twenty reaction and pictures from the scene at the r.t. dot com to keep across developments minute by minutes. also to come a washington a reef using to recognize the newly elected leader in venezuela will be you ha

by iran harder simonyan ammonia tank exploding although probably that would have exploded. when the main explosion took place but of course ammonia itself is very toxic it's it's it's a respected tree irritant and it would cause lots of serious response to treat track problems but then of course it's also produced when ammonium nitrate itself is heated up so if you heat ammonia nitrate to about three hundred fifty degrees it dissociates into ammonia and nitrite acid and so these two things would be quite toxic fumes or anybody inhaling them but i as i say i don't think that that that that i don't think that that could be the cause of the level of explosive force that we have seen here i mean something very much larger has happened here. following the explosion the have been concerns over toxic fumes are spreading across the area posing as a health risk to thousands of people we're not joined by dr rupert simon from the european chemicals agency dr the company reportedly had up to twenty tons of r. and hydro someone here on site could you tell us more about the substance and

by iran harder simonyan ammonia tank exploding course ammonia itself is very toxic so if you heat ammonium nitrate to about three hundred fifty degrees it dissociates into ammonia and nitrite acid and so these two things would be quite toxic fumes to anybody inhaling them. well there's some of the theory for the science where the events were catastrophic will show the map of where this planet is there we go it's just there focus on it oh ok well that's the fertilizer plant you can see how close it was to a nursing home to the middle school it was eight o'clock in the evening local time this luckily kids went out playing maybe they could have people playing sport there but we don't think so at the hospital very close to it as well this blast was felt eighty kilometers away flats felt the blast that far away close to home some of them were just absolutely leveled. you can see as to say how close it was a lot of questions being asked now and how wise is that. at a time when we've seen this happen other alarms maybe raised residents think he will hang on as a plant just down the road from me i

ammonia storage tanks and he was one of those tanks that blew up this one saying i did the bad news is the way it is the toxic chemicals that it's spreading around the area many of those surveyed hospitalized suffered from ammonia and whole asia here's what experts say about the spread of those toxic chemicals were fertilizer 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 and safely can lead to explosion so we have to assume at this point that it's such a chemical explosion that's happened there at the plant and when you're handling chemicals like this there is a possibility that there can be chemical contamination that could be 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 dist

we have been talking about the danger of the ammonia, anhydrous ammonia getting into the air. that's a major concern for responders and people living there as well. >> people are complaining of breathing problems as the toxic fumes spread. there's a talk of the change in the wind direction. they have already evacuated people on one side of this town 20 miles north ofwaco. they are talking about possibly evacuating others if the wind shifts directions this can be dangerous in terms of breathing. that is only one type of injury as you can see in the photograph. nearby you had a nursing home, you had a school which was vacant but which was apparently decimated. you have an apartment complex that has 50 units also said to be nothing but a skeleton at this point and you had 50 homes. all of these were attempted to be evacuated. once the fire officials got there and realized there was a fire in this fertilizer plant and the potential for an explosion they started to evacuate people. apparently some people were still there when the explosion happened. some people saw the fire and dro

by an harder simonyan ammonia tank exploding although probably that would have exploded. when the main explosion took place but of course ammonia itself is very toxic it's it's it's a respected tree irritant and it would cause lots of serious a. problem but then it cause it's also produced when ammonium nitrate itself is heated up so if you heat ammonium nitrate to about three hundred fifty degrees it dissociates into ammonia and nitrite acid and so these two things would be quite toxic fumes to anybody inhaling them but i as i say i don't think that that that that i don't think that that could be the cause of the level of explosive force that we have seen here i mean something very much larger has happened here. well that's what one of the experts has got to say because time will show exactly what happened when the investigations continue well let's take a look at a map and see where this plant is that we are that's the that's the whole fertilizer plant there you can see how close it was to the nursing home to the middle school hey what if the kids were at the playground

this is a fertilizer plant, which has a lot of ammonia chemicals. to get that kind of insight, we're going to abc's dr. richard besser, who's joining us now over the phone. dr. besser, are you there? >> yes, i'm here. >> good morning, professor. can you explain what some of the injuries might be from a fertilizer plant with components of ammonia. >> with a blast, you have to first think about the injuries from the blast itself, and so you'd be looking there for burns. you could be looking at broken bones, injuries to soft tissue, just from the explosion. when you add in the chemical ammonia, and you worry about what kind of breathing protection people have who are really close to that blast. ammonia can have a number of different impacts on your body. it's very irritating and corrosive. we've all smelled ammonia and know how hard it is to just smell that at very low levels. at high levels, ammonia can be very damaging to your respiratory track, to your nose, to your throat. it can cause swelling in your airways and can be very destructive. at high l

they produce anhydrous ammonia. >> they produce the anhydrous ammonia there? >> this is a tparpblg -- farming community. it is a big fertilizer plant. there is a railroad facility, railroad cars that bring tanks of anhydrous ammonia in. it's that kind of plant. they produce here shifts to local farmers, hence the reason we have such a large explosion because of the chemicals that were there. >> we don't know if it's staffed 24 hours a day, if there were people on site working? >> i do not. >> obviously a major employer, i would imagine with it being that large, you describing the rail system infrastructure that's in place. it's probably pretty big. i would imagine it employs a number of people. we're talking about a kphraoupbt that is 2,800 people total. >> it's a staple of this community. >> let's talk, if we can, about the chemical threat. i heard you say that as the winds continue to pick up and what not, that that threats is sort of diminishing. >> the last i've heard from our environmental people here, our emergency response folks have said that the fire

by one harder simonyan tank ammonia tank exploding but of course ammonia itself is very toxic it's it's it's a respected tree irritant and it would cause lots of serious response to treat track problems but then it cause it's also produced when ammonium nitrate itself is heated up so if you heat ammonia nitrate to about three hundred fifty degrees it dissociates into ammonia and nitrite acid and so these two things would be quite toxic fumes or anybody inhaling them. and i witness accounts stories from those injured and the expert comments are all available at our website at r.t. dot com you can go there and while you're there you'll also be able to watch more videos of the of the blast and find out what the danger is not. a few moments here not say we've talked to the world's top whistleblower and wiki leaks editor joining the sunday about his meeting with bahrain's main opposition figure stay with us for that. wealthy british style. sometimes classified. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my next concert for a no holds barred look at t

with ammonia it's very prongs it is very quick really you you know it's just. not even a matter of minutes if the concentration is high enough you will register it in a few seconds so very much depends on the concentration i know those strong winds that are there will blow things around but in some ways a strong winds help to disperse the chemicals more quickly so you don't have a very high concentration for a long time. what would you say would become the environmental i mean could this become an environmental catastrophe in the long run. i think it's unlikely given the various chemicals that are used. there are methods available for all of these things the sounds of this the firefighters have managed to contain the blaze to the extent that a second tank containing liquid ammonia is not at risk so what you have in terms of problems around about are chemical sort a largely used in agriculture so i don't think it will cause a huge pollution problem and there you because you've got all the fallout from the fire depends really what the construction of the building

the ammonia, the type of ammonia there at that fertilizer plant poses a major fire risk as well.imothy mcveigh used a similar chemical gleaned from fertilizer in the 1995 oklahoma city bombing of the murray federal office building. even so, chemicals at the west, texas, plant -- officials at the west, texas, plant told officials that the ammonia at the facility wasn't, wasn't a fire risk. at least for now. according to the dallas morning news, a report filed with the federal agency says the worst case scenario at the facility would be a ten-minute gas release that wouldn't hurt anyone. meanwhile, our affiliate wfaa reports that the plant was fined back in 2006 for having an inadequate risk management plan in place. let's talk a little bit more about all of this with our senior medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen. first of all, hospitals. west, texas. small town. under 3,000 people. not far from waco where they do have some significant hospitals. here in boston, for example, there are major hospitals within a few miles of the bombing that occurred. bombings that occurred. it's

took place but of course ammonia itself is very toxic it's it's it's a respected three irritant and it would cause lots of serious upper respiratory tract problems but then of course it's also produced when ammonium nitrate itself is heated up so if you heat ammonia nitrate to about three hundred fifty degrees it dissociates into ammonia and not discuss it and so these two things would be quite toxic fumes or anybody inhaling them eyewitness accounts stories from those injured and expert comments are all available at r.t. dot com and there you can also watch more video of the aftermath of the blast and find out what the danger is now. and coming up if you as photos are being counted following iraq's supposed occupation election that was plagued by violence we explore the deep divisions running across the country caused by ethnic differences and claims to its vast oil reserves that is just ahead. i. speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of p.r.p. interviews intriguing story for you. the arabic to find out

it's a material called anhydrous ammonia. it's listed as a pungent gas with suffocating fumes used as fertilizer, stored at high pressure and can quickly cause dehydration and severe burns if it micks with water in the body. symptoms can include difficulty breathing, irritation of eyes, nose and throat and can high amounts of an high dross ammonia can also cause death. crystal anthony lives very close to that fertilizer plant. she told piers morgan she was just 100 yards away when all hell broke loose. >> just devastating. and it's bad. i can't even put it into words. i've never seen anything like that in person before. >> have you any idea how many homes may have been either totaled or damaged badly? >> no, sir. i mean, it's a residential area. it's homes, apartment complexes, the nursing home, our schools. the intermediate, middle school, high school all suffered damages. >> the geological survey tells us the explosion at this west, texas, fertilizer plant measured 2.1 on the richter scale. even though the blast occurred ab

>> see, the other thing that made the explosion worse was not just ammonia. they store grain there and that's extremely explosive. i haven't been over there because they won't let us anywhere close. >> just while you're talking, we have that information hotline. it's 254-202-1100. that is for anyone concerned about anyone that might be in that area. dr. smith, thank you very much. indeed. i'm sure we're going to want to talk to you later, but, for now, you've been extremely helpful. >>> now, on the phone, i have the mayor. mr. mayor, can you hear me? >> yes. >> t this is absolutely a tragedy for west. where were you when the explosion happened? and where are you at the moment? >> i eenl rig'm right now at th center outside of west. i was about two blocks away responding to the fire when it exploded. >> we're getting conflicted reports, but it would seem a very large number of people's properties and homes have been -- >> it's about a five-block radius of the fertilizer plant. >> so how many homes do you think have been flattened in this? >> oh, 60, maybe 80.

we know this plant was cited in 2006 for a lingering smell of ammonia.evision station is reporting that this plant was fined in 2006 by the epa for not having a risk management plan in place that met federal standards. we know now officials from the chemical safety board are en route from washington, to look at the overall safety, history and the protocol in place here at this plant. we know this morning, "the dallas morning news" said it filed with federal and state officials, it had no risk of fire. that's what it reported to officials. it said the worst-case scenario would be a ten-minute release of ammonia gas that would not kill or injure any. this is called the west fertilizer. owned by adair grain. a private company. why does a grain company own a fertilizer company or a fertilizer plant? this kind of fertilizer is a prolific component in agriculture. and really an ag boom has meant more use in this chemical. it is also used as an explosive in construction and mining and in gaurys, used for instant cold packs there are a lot of applications, but a

oh i hope i mean if it's ammonia as they're saying and i'm not a scientist but i feel that it could go off into the air and spread further and further and they may have evacuated. you know 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 isa lake you know penny wise pound 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 disaster 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 now could try and limit the damage to the actual epicenter not click it spread further and work of course to has the technology and the government emission interest farm but the bigger question is are the failure of the start as in the cause we need to prove th

we've seen have had a variety of broken bones head injuries and a lot of them have had an hydrous ammonia inhalation from the from the fertilizer plant we have had a massive response from our medical our doctors our nurses our respiratory therapist and they have been able to treat in release most of the ones who have who have had the the exposure to the to the ammonia we have had twelve admissions of the sixty five patients we have seen prepare. every day for disasters i will say i've been here for thirty years i have never seen anything to the to this magnitude but i've been 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 and automatically bring phones of our staff and our staff who responded in a matter of minutes we train for chemical. spill we train train for you know trauma automobile we train for of 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 up chemical disasters we remain on on th

are suffering ammonia elation so they are they are being treated there we. we have. six firefighters we have confirmed dead six firefighters two medical professionals and one police officer but as far as numbers that number could be the number of fatalities could be higher but officials are very much reluctant to to confirm numbers as as of now but what it is it doesn't need any confirmation is the devastation that the explosion caused that is very much visible and the reason why that figure could be much higher the fatality figure is because so many buildings were demolished by this massive explosion when she's pushing for she again you can see it in a couple of seconds but that is flattened so many buildings and police and emergency services one having to go to each building almost door to door to try and search for people that might be there and that in itself must be a very painstaking process would. take a long time to do so absolutely. exactly but it this is this is this is a small town of around three thousand people so they are going there truly from door to

one of the concerns earlier on, charles, was that the anhydrous ammonia.alked about over the subsequent hours. there were reports earlier from eyewitnesses or reporters on the ground, smelling of smoke. perhaps a smell of ammonia. in the seventh hour. talking to another reporter on the ground. he was giving us the arc of how the story had changed. any smell on the ground, quickly? >> not at all. i'm walking around downdown west, texas. you wouldn't expect to smell anything. but that could change in the next three to four hours when this major cold front sweeps across the state. comes across and changes the winds from the south to the north. at that point, we might be able to see the smoke and smell it. for now, most of the town of west is unaffected by the smoke or the fumes. >> that's good news, charles, that we don't have reports of any sort of smell. okay. charles hadlock on the ground. we're going to get back to you later after this break. we're live in west, texas. we continue to follow the explosion. >>> it's a changing situation on the ground in wes

you told me for an ammonia being released how dangerous is this potentially fatal if not treated as any gases that can take over your respiratory system in fact we've actually heard that there have been cases of and hydrous ammonia inhalation that people have been treated now if treated properly and if caught quickly. in time they will of the people will be expected to fully recover but what they're worried about is gas clouds that they can't get people from people as fixating from this toxic chemical so it is a very very a big concern for emergency medicine the situation on the ground at the moment is that they are looking very closely at this and considering evacuating more people only hope that people are being evacuated from the town of west that is only a very small town in itself isn't it two thousand seven hundred people but so that is to consider at the moment but let's just for a moment reflect on that major blast we can now hear more i witness accounts. ok i think. he's i hear ok so that you can hear the panic there from the person who is taking the footage we have spoken so y

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 surround

that would help disperse any ammonia leaking from the plant. ammonia is a colorless but very caustic and toxic fume that it gives off. it is also lighter air so that helps disperse it, too. it's not going to hug the ground. >> you mentioned that you're relatively close. are there any efforts to keep people away from the blast site? >> yes. >> are there officials checking people in? >> yes. there's a roadblock on every street off the main east/west corridor through down. no one is getting in there except first responders. >> as you told us about earlier and if you could share this information again because i think it's very instructive to look at the past when you look at situations like this. fertilizer plants unfortunately at times have these problems with these kind of explosions, correct? >> that's right. in fact, 66 years ago yesterday on april 16th, 1947 in texas city, a ship load of anhydrous ammonia caught fire and just like today people came out to see the fire, drawn by the smoke and they started taking pictures. the fire got out of co

by an harder simonyi ammonia tank exploding although probably that would have exploded. when the main explosion took place but of course ammonia itself is very toxic it's it's it's a respected tree irritant and it would cause lots of serious response to treat drug problems but then it cause it's also produced when ammonium nitrate itself is heated up so if you heat ammonia nitrate to about three hundred fifty degrees it dissociates into ammonia and nitrite acid and so these two things would be quite toxic fumes or anybody inhaling them what eyewitness account stories from mazing and expert comments are all available at our website at www dot com there you can also watch more videos of the aftermath of the blast and find out what the danger is. hugo chavez's campaign successor is now officially at the head of the world's most oil rich nation having been inaugurated as the president of venezuela but the going was far from smooth and they close majority with seven protesters killed in clashes with police this week thousands of supporters of opposition candidate. took to the

the chemical that is in play here is anhydrous ammonia. it is a toxic chemical that is incredibly flammable. what firefighters did at that point was evacuated the surrounding area immediately probably saving hundreds of lives. they evacuated homes and businesses and they evacuated apartment buildings and they evacuated a nursing home that had about 130 units inside. but it was only an hour, hour and a half later, about 8:00 p.m. is when the explosion took place. that's when we know it leveled about four blocks around that facility. it disseminated those very, very toxic fumes which i am learning can be quite irritating when ingested. it can cause mild to moderate nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, burning of the mouth, throat, esophagus and stomach. we heard from casey on the ground who is miles away from the location, but can still feel and smell the chemicals. joining us on the phone now is todd from fox news radio. first, todd, thank you for joining us. thank you for joining us all night. i know you and i just listened to the press confe

anhydrous ammonia held under very high pressure, in tanks. once it's released, first it can linger close to the ground before it can dissipate. it is flammable. plus, severe weather threat that affects the rescue efforts as well. jennifer delgado has more on the weather situation. george howell saying concerns about rough weather moving in and how that might complicate the picture. >> we do have a thunderstorm watch just to the west of west, texas. here's the line right here. this squall line. along this we are going to see very gusty wind. winds up to 40 miles an hour. we've already seen some wind gusts up to 50. now, we're expecting it to make its way to west, texas, right around 5:30, 6:00 local time, again that's central time. here's waco, dallas up here. it's located roughly about 65 miles away. it's moving at a rate of 45 miles an hour. expecting it there around 6:19. and the problem is, with this coming through, with so many people not having proper shelter, being outside, we're talking about ground lightning as well as hail and strong

little ammonia was soon tikrit volusia baghdad babylon. and i'll file a road map of the iraqi tragedy. serve obviously i'm delighted the americans have finally left iraq as much as we're rocky's a very happy not to see it or hear anymore enough was enough the americans occupied us so we hate them like they lean here in iraq they killed in creating the conditions for chaos they're responsible for the whole tragedy because we were living in peace and they came to destroy our country and also we want all of us out of the. right andrea says bringing in the buff crane ahead of the weekend's of formula one grand prix with the protesters fear is that the government plans to her use and the lead to a sports event despite the country's poor human rights record now there's already been some of violence with activists hurling petrol bombs that drive police or who responded with tear gas the demonstrators accuse of formula one of ignoring rights abuses as security forces clamp down in the lead up to the grounds of race organizers insisted the protests

water willet anhyd ammonia. the working hypothesis.re was a working fire, the hose water might have set off anhydrous ammonia, creating a chain reaction of explosions releasing this titanic force which can level several city blocks. >> you should understand that if you have a plant wit ammonium n. >> they say it's okay to have this type of materials, because nothing will happen. there is a rare sequence of events that will set off anhydrous ammonia. >> thank you. we want to go to major garrett, traveling with the president today. >> good morning, charlie and norah. the president notified about the waco explosion last night. that process began after the president returned to the white house after having dinner outside the white house at the jefferson hotel in washington. to a dozen senate democrats. the federal emergency management agency has been asked to take the lead. state and local officials are standing by to offer whatever assistance is requested. no signal yet this is an uncommon or suspicious event it looks to be in preliminary

government doesn't classify anhydrous ammonia as a flammable substance in normal concentrations., of course, in industrial situations, like this one that we're dealing with, it becomes dangerous. and the presence of other combustible material makes it more volatile. and one of the main concerns right now at the scene is the air quality. hundreds of firefighters and other first responders may be breathing in the hazardous chemicals that are around. dr. sanjay gupta spoke to anderson cooper and to erin burnett about the dangers. >> we've heard about fertilizer explosions in the past. and this is always a concern. because the blast itself, somebody a couple miles away felgt the impact of this. they'll talk about the burn, the flash effects and also just this chemical, itself. one of the people, i think, they said they saw guards wearing respirators. that would not surprise me because the air in that area is probably going to quickly become of concern when you have these sorts of chemicals. . so we've seen these types of explosions in the past. those are pretty standard protocols. fr

>> the explosion you saw was the ammonia burning.y -- it will take several days, but probably the pressurized tanks storing the high-volume ammonia they had on site that they were producing. >> of course, we know that fertilizer is often used in terrorist attacks. it has been in the past, although law enforcement authorities say that there's no reason to think this was anything other than an industrial accident. how safely and securely are companies obligated to keep material like this? >> well, obviously, you have to be very careful with anything like this that has the risk for explosion. there are protocols people follow and things we know from years of working with these chemicals on how to keep it safe and prevent, hopefully, accidents like this that occur. unfortunately, every once in awhile you get a situation like this where you have a fire in an unrelated part of the plant that spread to the storage tanks and then we see this tremendous explosion that we saw today -- or yesterday. >> all right. doug mulford, thanks so much fo

but right next door was another ship loaded with anhydrous ammonia and it exploded.killed thousands of people in texas city. it blue airplanes out of the sky. it blew tanks miles away. it was the worst industrial accident in the last century. another reminder of just how powerful and dangerous anhydrous ammonia can be in certain conditions such as a fire. >> and of course you mentioned in that previous incident, the historic one you that mentioned, that a number of aircraft were affected by that. and as a result of that out of an abundance of precaution officials have in fact ground -- or issued a no-fly zone, rather, in that area to keep helicopters and aircraft away. what can you tell us about the first responders on the scene. are they able to get access to the scene with the road blocks and with the severe damage that's been done to the community? >> right now we can see first responders going in and out of the roadblock area. apparently, they're offering relief to the crews that are there, perhaps more sophisticated equipment than this county has. as you mention

you don't want to put bleach next to ammonia. in a disaster if /taeu break and mix, what will happen. you will have a hazardous material place in your house. how about this? the typical garage. most people don't have gas in the suburbs you do. if you have lawn mowers. store it low. gas fumes will creep down to the bottom. if you have to store gas, store it mostly full. if you have an empty gas container -- if you want to protect yourself put cords across it so it doesn't fall in an earthquake. you screw it in. strap it across. make sure the shelf is screwed into the wall if it's screwed into a stud it will not tip over. when you go home look at your hazards. get everything in a box. there is no correct spot to put it. some people get a can and put it in their yard. it's up to you. there is no correct spot it's where everybody in your family knows where it is. if you are not home and a disaster hits who the find it. the whole family gets involved you, yourself, family members, kids, let them know where it is. if something happens

anhydrous ammonia is a very dangerous product. texas is familiar with that.ack in the 1940s, the texas city shipped explosion blew up two giant ships filled with anhydrous ammonia. that explosion back in texas city in the 1940s killed thousands of people. >> say on the line, if you will. i want to listen in to the nbc affiliate and their coverage of this development. >> smoldering embers, a patch of orange just near the stadium lights. we have been talking about the football field. we drove past the bat, which looks vacant now. much of the town does as well. lot of the streets are blocked off. we are trying to get closer to where all of this unfolded so that we can bring you more coverage on that. as you drive past gas stations, folks do not want gas to be in the air because of the situation that unfolded. my first impression as you drive in is that it just looks like a ghost town with red in blue police lights. >> ray has arrived on the seam in west, as we continue to look at these images shot. you can see what he is talking about. all of the flashing lights

officials are asking people to evacuate the town because of concerns about ammonia fumes. stay with ktvu. we will be updating this story throughout tonight's newscast. >>> now to our continuing coverage of the boston bombings, and what may be a major development tonight. we're learning aauthorities are circulating images of not one, but two men with backpacks spotted near the finish line of the marathon. >> reporter: there was a flurry of activity today, indicating officials were ready to make a major announcement, but a scheduled news conference was postponed, then canceled. the image is said to show one leaving a backpack near the finish line. there's no indication authorities have learned the men's name, or other details, a boston tv station obtained other pictures of one of the men fleeing the bomb site, his clothes are ripped. he moves dazed through the crowd. the man who took the pictures has his theories. >> either he was badly burned and panicked and flying, other he was fleeing for some other reason. >> we're all seeing more images of the bomb components. pictures

the wind are whipping up and still carrying the deadly ammonia. >> we have a strong cold front moving through at this time of year and the wind really get going ahead of the cold front. lets put our graphic in motion. right now, the wind are gusting already before this front gets here 30 to 40 miles per hour and the flow is coming up from the south moving to the north. so anybody who lives north of this fertilizer or ammonia plant, they are advised to stay inside or get out and thunderstorms are likely in this area tonight. problems just getting worse tonight because of the wind. i'll have our forecast coming up in a few minutes. >> thank you. >>> we should know that friday mark the 20th anniversary of the deadly siege at the branch davidian compound in nearby waco. at this point, there is nothing to suggest that the two events are in any way connected. >>> to boston now where investigators believe they are making solid progress in the hunt for the marathon bomber. they are zeroing in on at least one possible suspect thanks to surveillance video and cell phone records. the guy was see

it says don't mix ammonia and bleach makes a gas. these are bad things to mix with bleach. who's got these under their sink in i do. everybody does. you want to separate the ones that don't go to together. how do you find out? read the labels. these are department of transportation placards, they are colored. they are all red. they have the sort of flame thing up there. the little number here and number here. we've got books in our rig that tell us what these are. based on a number. we will see a 1219, look in the book and say a truck carrying 1219 and it's leaking every where what do we have. george, we have 92 octane gasoline, that's not good. we call people and get help. we as volunteers are not going to be hazardous material people. you need to know this is red, it's flammable. if there is a problem, let us know and keep people away from it. these are more placards. explosives, anything orange, reds yellow. oxidizer, that's going to make a small fire into a really big fire without much help. inhalation hazards, don't breathe it. okay. the rest it self explanatory. there

what could happen to people who breathe in this chemical and hydrous ammonia? >> this is a very interesting, potentially dangerous chemical, a nitrogen fertilizer, jake. let me just tell you it's stored at high pressure and that is relevant because if it comes out of a tank, it can -- it's lighter than air, typically. in conditions like this, though, it can stay closer to the ground and cause what's known as an ammonia fog. if it touches your skin it immediately dehydrates your skin to the point where you can suffer burns. you heard probably, jake, the initial rescue efforts people had to wear respirators. if you breathe this in it can be quite damaging to your upper airway and lungs. that was the big concern obviously for the people in the area but also the first responders. i will tell you, jake, the state epa has been conducting air quality exams pretty regularly and so far the news seems to be good with regard to that. either because of the winds, the conditions overall, that air quality does not seem to be an issue. you do have the concerns still as you po

>> reporter: that plant reportedly stored tens of thousands of pounds of a type of ammonia, extremely flammable and explosive when exposed to water. >> with that type of ammonia, if you add water, it's going to expand to a large, white vapor cloud. did that create a different problem for them that they weren't aware of? when you have a volunteer fire department, whether they had that level of training, i don't know. >> reporter: the chief doesn't question the bravery of his texas colleagues who probably knew that they were putting their lives on the line. >> when you go to those calls, you think about dying. you could die. it doesn't always happen, but sometimes it goes wrong. but they were doing their job and that's the job of the firefighter. not to necessarily die in the course of their duties, but, again, to put themselves between the emergency and the community. >> reporter: there was a chemical explosion here in the bay area many years ago at the catalytica plant here palo alto. nowhere near the scale of west, texas. but the plant shut down as a result. menlo park fire says a sp

the wind could be a factor and carrying ammonia fumes from the explosion scene to residents in that area. nbc's meteorologist bill karins is live at msnbc headquarters with more on that. good morning to you. >> reporter: the scene hasn't been helped by the weather at all. the gusty winds fanning those flames on the homes after the explosion and then once they settled down and the first responders arrived on the scene. it was pitch black and then it started to rain and pour early this morning. thankfully the rain is starting to let up with one little batch of wet weather left. this is the dallas-fort worth, dallas area, waco here and, of course, west, texas, located on i-95, a little small town. wind blowing out of the northwest at 22. they have said that they are not so concerned with the air quality anymore in the region for the first responders, so that was good. that was a major concern early this morning, and i want to give you a close-up view of the fertilizer plant. this is the plant itself. not a big fertilizer plant. it's got two main buildings, and these buildings here, and then

companyought that the had 20 tons of ammonia stored on the premises. at first light, we drove into the worst affected area just next to the factory. this two-story apartment block was torn to shreds by the force ofast. some homes have burned to the ground. rain helped douse the flames, but they were still smoldering hours impact of the street aftertrt was quite astonishing. were pulled from the wreckage. scores were injured. on the side of the plant, fires were stillng. huge metal silos had been torn open by the explosion. this is what is left of the fertilizer factory that caught fire and then exploded, sending a fireball across this whole neighborhood. investigators were to try to establish what caused the explosion. it was hours before teams in a special protective equipment had insured dangerous chemicals were no longer a threat. >> last night was truly a nightmare scenario for that community. as i said earlier, we are blessed to have the best emergency management team in the country, and they certainly were at their best last night, along with the

officials are asking people to evacuate the town because of concerns about ammonia fumes. stay with ktvu. we will be updating this story throughout tonight's newscast. >>> now to our continuing coverage of the boston bombings, and what may be a major development tonight. we're learning aauthorities are circulating images of not one, but two men with backpacks spotted near the finish line of the marathon. >> reporter: there was a flurry of activity today, indicating officials were ready to make a major announcement, but a scheduled news conference was postponed, then canceled. the image is said to show one leaving a backpack near the finish line. there's no indication authorities have learned the men's name, or other details, a boston tv station obtained other pictures of one of the men fleeing the bomb site, his clothes are ripped. he moves dazed through the crowd. the man who took the pictures has his theories. >> either he was badly burned and panicked and flying, other he was fleeing for some other reason. >> we're all seeing more images of the bomb components. pictures