The Killeen Fire Department Has Provided Aid In West Following The Explosion At Its Chemical Fertilizer Plant – A Hazmat Team Is Monitoring Potentially Harmful Chemicals

16 members of the Killeen Fire Department were dispatched to provide help with the ongoing recovery efforts in West after a fertilizer plant explosion that occurred there Wednesday evening.

Killeen Fire Chief J.D. Gardner told the Killeen Daily Herald that 10 members of the Killeen hazmat team, four to six members of the decomposition team and a single ambulance with two EMS personal were sent to West in order to aid other first responders at the request of Waco Fire Chief John Johnston.

Gatesville’s Emergency Medical Services also sent units to help in the small town devastated by Wednesday’s blast.

Hazmat teams will need to monitor several chemicals, the most pressing being anhydrous ammonia, a pungent gas that is used as a fertilizer. Anhydrous means “without water”, and exposure to the gas can cause extreme dehydration and severe burns when it combines with water in the human body. Symptoms of exposure include difficulty breathing, irritation of the eyes nose and throat and burns or blisters. Anhydrous ammonia vapors move close to the ground when released. The West Fertilizer Co., site of the explosion, had around 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on hand.