Texas Fertililzer Plant Explosion Linked To Scant Regulation
Remember the Texas fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people last year? Remember the controversial political cartoon about the event?
Texas Governor Rick Perry was so incensed by the cartoon that he demanded an apology from the paper that printed it:
But, as it happens, the cartoon was completely accurate:
The volunteer firefighters who rushed to the plant to fight a fire that broke out there before the explosion were largely unaware of the dangers of ammonium nitrate, and a local emergency planning committee had not adopted an emergency response plan for the plant. Even if they had, Texas has no statewide fire code that would have established a minimum set of standards.
