19 April 2013 (19:26 UTC-07 Tango 18 April 2013)/08 Jumada t-Tania 1434/30 Farvardin 1391/10 Bing-Chen (3rd month) 4711

The Texas Commercial Fertilizer Control Act requires fertilizer factories to store various chemicals and other ingredients separately, and in a way to prevent fires.

A CBS affiliate in Dallas talked to the owner of the factory that exploded in West.  He stated that the plant was shut down for the night and all employees were “off duty”, in other words, nobody was supposed to be there.

The same CBS affiliate also talked to other fertilizer factory owners throughout Texas, and they told the reporter that the only way such a big fire and explosion could happen is that certain ingredients come into contact with each other, which is exactly what the Texas Commercial Fertilizer Control Act intends to prevent.

There needs to be the right combo of ammonia nitrate, oxygen and a fuel.  That fuel could be diesel or even water.   If large amounts of ammonium nitrate powder, or fumes, get airborne (meaning it mixes with oxygen) you get the ingredients for a fuel air bomb (this actually used to happen a lot in grain silos, before they figured out what was going on, that’s where the idea for fuel air bombs came from).   It was suggested the attempts by the first responders to put out the fire with water, actually made it worse.  It’s possible the first responders thought it was a simple fire.

So something happened to cause the creation of a fuel air bomb situation at the West, Texas fertilizer plant.   CBS Dallas reporter, Ginger Allen, said she found emails within the fertilizer industry, warning members to increase security and reassess their crisis plans.