So, what was happening at the fertilizer plant prior to the explosion?

According to Quartz.comhttp://qz.com/75753/what-was-going-on-at-the-texas-fertilizer-factory-before-it-exploded/ Much more info about the process at that site.

Reports of 60 dead, 100 more injured. (update 5-15 dead, 160 injured)

Quote :

The fertilizer production facility in West, a small town near Waco in Texas, was conducting the final steps necessary to convert natural gas into plant food. That’s been the basic recipe for fertilizer ever since a German chemist named Fritz Haber created the process that bears his name (along with his colleague Carl Bosch) in 1909.

...The West Fertilizer Co. plant had an air quality permit from the state to run a fertilizer mixing and storage facility. It had a large stockpile of anhydrous ammonia, which is synthesized from natural gas and atmospheric nitrogen using the Haber-Bosch process. The Dallas Morning News reported that West Fertilizer’s filings with federal and local environmental officials claimed that its plant posed no risk of a fire or explosion.

A video of the explosion.

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A nearby Apartment Building after the explosion.

Holy SHIT! I wish I would not have had the sound on. That poor kid. F***!!!! When I first started watching I was already going to comment "What the hell is that idiot doing so close to a burning fertilizer plant?!" Of course, I didn't realize he had his CHILD in the truck with him! ARGH!!

(Reuters) - Despite being located within a short walk of a nursing home, school and residential buildings, West Fertilizer Co in central Texas had no blast walls and had filed no contingency plan to the Environmental Protection Agency for a major explosion or fire at the site.

It remains unclear what safety measures, if any, were required of the company or whether West Fertilizer failed to comply. But on Wednesday night, the company's fertilizer complex in West, Texas - population, 2,600 - exploded with such force that 60 to 80 homes were flattened, the school and nursing home took heavy damage and at least 14 people were killed, authorities said.

In a 2011 filing with the EPA, the operators of West Fertilizer told regulators that a typical emergency scenario at the facility that holds anhydrous ammonia could result in a 10-minute release of the substance in gas form. That chemical, used as a fertilizer, is toxic to inhale but is not considered highly flammable or explosive, and the safety plan did not envisage any blast scenario.

In a separate filing earlier this year to the Texas Department of State Health Services, West Fertilizer disclosed that, as of the end of 2012, the company was also storing more volatile chemical compounds at the same address, including 270 tons of ammonium nitrate.

E, this is so tragic... I was up half the night with the sound of that little boy screaming to his daddy ringing in my ears. Very disturbing.

Having been deeply involved in safety at several factories for the past 13 - 14 years (granted, they were not fertilizer / shit factories), I have to wonder, "Where was OSHA??" in all this. You've no idea how much I would love to have seen their OSHA and ISO standards and procedures... Did they even exist?? If so, were they current? I'm not blaming those entities, the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the business, but it would seem that the business would have a violation or a dozen on their record, leaving one wondering why they were still operational.

*I am still laughing out loud at the statement that the site safety plan did not envisage any blast scenario. WTF??!!

On second thought, after re-reading your above post, maybe some blame is shared with OSHA... I just don't know. It seems that they were negligent in this case... first guess would be because no one wants to go camp out in Nowhere, Texas spending long hours at a fertilizer / shit factory for days on end.

...just a guess.