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State Says Several North Texas Facilities Store Ammonium Nitrate

Joe Berti

State emergency officials say the West Fertilizer plant where an explosion killed 14 people was under no obligation to have an evacuation plan. A Homeland Security Hearing also revealed that other North Texas Counties store ammonium nitrate, a substance that was kept at the blast site.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told lawmakers there are more than 1,000 facilities statewide that store it in some capacity

“Eighty-six ammonium nitrate only companies, 96 ammonium nitrate only facilities," McCraw says. "The top three counties with ammonium nitrate facilities are Comanche which has five, Cook and Navarro Counties have four, each, and Cherokee, Grimes, Henderson and Parker each have three.”

Investigators say they still don't know what caused the massive explosion in West. A spokesperson with the Texas Fire Marshal's office  said today that investigators hope to complete their onsite probe by May 10. 

Courtney Collins has been working as a broadcast journalist since graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2004. Before coming to KERA in 2011, Courtney worked as a reporter for NPR member station WAMU in Washington D.C. While there she covered daily news and reported for the station’s weekly news magazine, Metro Connection.