Author Topic: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery  (Read 2632 times)

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Offline BuckeyeTexan

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West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery

By Jon Schuppe

Federal investigators opened a captivating new chapter in a deadly West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion when they announced that someone deliberately set the fire that sparked it.

But, as with many mysteries, the revelation raises more urgent questions.

Who did it? How? Why? And how do authorities know it was arson?

Anyone wanting answers to those questions immediately will have to wait. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says it is still investigating the April 17, 2013, blast at a West Fertilizer Co. plant, which killed 15 people — including a dozen emergency workers — injured 260 and leveled 120 houses, two schools and a nursing home.

The fire was reported about 20 minutes before the detonation, which was fueled by the plant's massive stockpile of ammonium nitrate.

(Excerpt)
There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. ~Steve Earle

Offline Ghost Bear

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Re: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2016, 11:09:13 pm »
Hard to believe they could find who did it, after three years...

Unless they know or have a suspect, and they're covering it up because of who that person is...  :tinfoil:
Let it burn.

Offline Sanguine

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Re: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2016, 12:06:37 am »
Weird story.  I couldn't figure out exactly what they were trying to say.

Offline TXnTX

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Re: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2016, 03:19:51 am »
@Sanguine , @Bear_in_RoseBear , @BuckeyeTexan

I've done extensive OHI (OverHead Imagery) analysis of the West explosion site -- and have also examined the site on the ground. My conclusion is that the ATF, etc.may have missed a critical element of the explosion.

There is strong evidence of a probable semi-trailer full of ammonium nitrate that was parked atop the railroad spur -- adjacent to and just northward of the building that is considered the center of the blast.

Why do I say that? Google Earth showed that parking semi-trailer loads on that spot was a common practice.  AND, 55 feet of those rails are completely missing -- and, at both ends of that span, both rails were sheared, DOWNWARD.

There is far more to this discussion and, should you want to continue it -- by then, I may have figured out how to post images on this (new to me) forum.  Ping me if you want to discuss this further...

TXnTX (Class of 2000 on FR as "TXnMA"...)

Offline Sanguine

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Re: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2016, 03:26:41 am »
@TXnTX , yes, I'd like to see more. 

Offline TXnTX

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Re: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2016, 03:44:45 am »
@Sanguine : How do we attach images on this forum?

A-Lert

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Re: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2016, 04:06:54 am »
@Sanguine , @Bear_in_RoseBear , @BuckeyeTexan

I've done extensive OHI (OverHead Imagery) analysis of the West explosion site -- and have also examined the site on the ground. My conclusion is that the ATF, etc.may have missed a critical element of the explosion.

There is strong evidence of a probable semi-trailer full of ammonium nitrate that was parked atop the railroad spur -- adjacent to and just northward of the building that is considered the center of the blast.

Why do I say that? Google Earth showed that parking semi-trailer loads on that spot was a common practice.  AND, 55 feet of those rails are completely missing -- and, at both ends of that span, both rails were sheared, DOWNWARD.

There is far more to this discussion and, should you want to continue it -- by then, I may have figured out how to post images on this (new to me) forum.  Ping me if you want to discuss this further...

TXnTX (Class of 2000 on FR as "TXnMA"...)

I'm interested. Have you drawn any conclusions as to why or who?

Offline Sanguine

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Re: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery
« Reply #7 on: May 15, 2016, 04:31:35 am »
@Sanguine : How do we attach images on this forum?

@TXnTX, use the little pic icon on the second line right above where the emoticons start.  It's looks like a tiny Mona Lisa. 

Offline BuckeyeTexan

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Re: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery
« Reply #8 on: May 16, 2016, 05:21:10 am »
@TXnTX

Been busy with new grandbaby. Sorry for the delayed reply. Absolutely, I am interested in your analysis!
There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. ~Steve Earle

Offline TXnTX

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Re: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery
« Reply #9 on: May 16, 2016, 07:37:13 am »
@BuckeyeTexan , @Sanguine . @A-Lert

~~~~~~~~~~~
CAVEAT: As a scientist, I will deal with the questions of "Where?", "What?", "How?", and, "When". The questions of "Who?". and "Why?" -- I leave to law enforcement and those who deal in conspiracy theories...
~~~~~~~~~~~

I just found "new" post-blast OHI that approximately matches this Google Earth view of the area of blast focus at West:



...and am "georeferencing" (fancy term for "matching and aligning")  it to this "before" image. (The site is so obliterated by blast and "cleanup" damage that we must provide our own, accurate "landmarks" in order to do credible spatial analysis...)

Notice the yellow-overtinted building.  That is where the ATF says the focus of the blast was. (The yellow polygon {or its outline} will be propagated "upward" as a "landmark" as we add layers of post-blast imagery...)

Now, notice the practice of parking semi-trailer trucks loaded with Ammonium Nitrate ("AN") right on the tracks of the plant's rail spur that runs to the east of the mainline RR tracks.

From various bits of evidence (cratering, debris scatter patterns, displacement of mainline RR rails, etc., I hypothesized that there was a center of explosion north of the building -- aligned with the railroad spur. Last Thanksgiving, I finally had a chance to visit the site (which is mostly obliterated now), and found what I expected: distinctive evidence of a center of explosion atop the rail spur:



Railroad rails are designed to be their strongest in the vertical plane, because they must not only withstand heavy loads, but also the trip-hammer-like pounding of thousands of loaded steel wheels passing over them -- at speed.

That rail is sheared from the top down. (Whereas, as you will see, the rails on the main line were bent so far laterally that the eastern rail almost touched the western rail...) That was one hellaciously powerful vertical "punch"!

The above rail and its sheared, bent laterally, and rolled-over partner, are broken along a line just north of (and parallelling) the shadow of the semi-trailer parked alongside the building, above...

To the north,there is another pair of sheared rail ends -- just about where the front bumper of the northern truck -- parked by the big, circular AN bin for loading -- crosses the rails of the spur.

Between those two points -- the rails, crossties, spikes, etc of that spur are totally missing!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh -- that diagonal red line?  That's a Google Earth "stitch line" -- where two image "tiles" or "panes" dont quite line up.  I had "sliced" the image along that line and had shifted the halves so that "minor details" like railroad tracks and spurs line up properly -- when "Canvas Draw 2", my "graphics engine", barfed and destroyed my work.  So... there will be a silght delay while I recover...   :shrug:


 

Offline Sanguine

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Re: West Texas Fertilizer Blast: 'Criminal Act' Ruling Deepens Mystery
« Reply #10 on: May 16, 2016, 01:45:31 pm »
@TXnTX 

I haven't been to the site so this is very interesting.

I will say that the way that article was written seemed to be intended to relate the least amount of information possible.