Case study and lessons learned from the ammonium nitrate explosion at the West Fertilizer facility

In West, Texas on April 17, 2013, a chemical storage and distribution facility caught fire followed by the explosion of around 30 tons of ammonium nitrate while the emergency responders were trying to extinguish the fire, leading to 15 fatalities and numerous buildings, businesses and homes destroyed or damaged. This incident resulted in devastating consequences for the community around the facility, and shed light on a need to improve the safety management of local small businesses similar to the West facility. As no official report on the findings of the incident has been released yet, this article first investigates the root causes of the incident, and presents a simplified consequence analysis. The article reviews the regulations applicable to this type of facility and recommended emergency response procedures to identify gaps between what happened in West and the current regulations, and discusses how the current regulations could be modified to prevent or minimize future losses. Finally, the federal response that followed the incident until the publication of this paper is summarized.