john: webster then called her cousin, vanda thomas, who lives nearby. rabbed my pocketbook, my child, my fiance, and we got in the car with our pajamas on and we left. john: no one died in winston-salem that night, but other communities have not been so lucky. in 2013, a fertilizer plant explosion leveled the farming community of west in north-central texas. >> at first, we just saw a little bit of smoke. next thing i know, shrapnel was falling down everywhere, burning all of us, and we just got out and ran. john: the blast left 15 people dead. 12 of them first responders. and as many as 200 others injured. since 2021, there have been 614 accidents in the united states involving chemicals. and between 2016 and 2020, 133 chemical accidents required more than 64,000 people to be evacuated from their homes and at least 85,000 to shelter-in-place. >> chemical disasters occur about once every other day in the united states. and so this is this is a massive problem. john: maya nye is the federal policy director at "coming clean ," a nonprofit group that advoca