Is your community safe?

[Cassandra Lista]

When volunteer firefighters and EMTs got the call to fight a small fire at the West Fertilizer Co. in West, Texas on April 17, 2013, no one knew almost half of them wouldn’t come back alive.

It only took about twenty minutes for the fire to grow and reach wooden bins holding hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate. This caused two explosions, equivalent to 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of TNT.

Blunt-force trauma and burns killed 12 first responders instantly. The blast demolished a nearby apartment building and killed two tenants. Collapsed walls and ceilings at a neighboring retirement home trapped many residents and killed a 96-year-old man.

The town’s high school, middle school, and elementary school are all located within a mile of the plant. Thankfully, the blast did not happen during school hours--but it could have.

Tragedies like the explosion in West happen with terrifying regularity. The map above shows 355 chemical disasters that have happened between the 2013 West explosion and the end of last year.

Please, share this map to increase awareness of the risk of chemical disasters in our communities.

We could solve this problem now. Safer chemicals are widely available and affordable; hundreds of chemical plants have already made the switch. But with more than 100 million people still at risk every day, these voluntary measures are not enough to prevent future disasters like the one in West, Texas.

We're working to make safer chemical plants a reality. In the meantime, you can use the map to identify the dangerous plants nearest your home and spread the word.

Sincerely,

Emily Rusch
CALPIRG Executive Director

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CALPIRG, 1314 H St., Ste. 100, Sacramento, CA 95814, (916) 448-4516