{"id":35985,"date":"2014-04-14T15:20:39","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T20:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=35985"},"modified":"2014-04-14T19:36:01","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T00:36:01","slug":"texas-could-consider-fire-code-to-prevent-another-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/04\/14\/texas-could-consider-fire-code-to-prevent-another-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Still Considering Solutions to Prevent Another West"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Crews<\/a>

Terrence Henry\/StateImpact Texas<\/p>

Crews are still working to clear the site of the explosion in West, Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n

This week marks a year since a fertilizer plant exploded<\/a> in the small Texas town of West, killing fifteen, injuring over a hundred, and destroying homes and local schools. Today, a meeting at the state legislature made it clear that\u00a0lawmakers aren’t in any hurry to use regulation to guard against something like West from happening again.<\/p>\n

The House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee<\/a>\u00a0met for the first time since August to look into the industrial disaster. The State Fire Marshal told the committee that his office is still not sure what sparked the fire. It could have been electrical, or a malfunctioning golf cart battery, or it could have been started on purpose. But without question, the cause of the destructive blast was ammonium nitrate. The fertilizer had been legally stored in a wooden building with no sprinkler system.<\/p>\n

What new rules and regulations should be considered to prevent another West? Two clear solutions emerged at the hearing: stricter standards for storing ammonium nitrate, and more training and coordination for local officials and first responders.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There are a few dozen fertilizer facilities in Texas like the one in West, older buildings storing the chemical in wooden structures.<\/p>\n

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