The mayor of the small Texas city north of Waco devastated by an explosion at a fertilizer plant said that 35 to 40 people were unaccounted for.

West, Texas, Mayor Tommy Muska gave that estimate to ABC News as search and rescue teams continued to look for survivors and missing people amid flattened and devastated buildings near the scene of Wednesday evening's explosion.

Volunteer firefighters battling a blaze at the plant that preceded the blast were among the missing.
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State Trooper D.L. Wilson of the Texas Department of Public Safety described the initial fertilizer plant blast as "massive -- just like Iraq, just like the Murray Building in Oklahoma City. The same kind of hydrous [ammonia] exploded, so you can imagine what kind of damage we're looking at."

Swanton said authorities were still in search-and-rescue mode and are not yet in recovery mode.
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However, as they prepared to investigate the explosion site, officials said they were treating it as a crime scene.

"We are not indicating that it is a crime, but we don't know," Swanton said. "What that means to us is that until we know that it is an industrial accident, we will work it as a crime scene. ATF [the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] is conducting the main investigation."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-mayor-35-...31#.UXEDZcqHfPo

Quote: Olivia wrote in post #1

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The mayor of the small Texas city north of Waco devastated by an explosion at a fertilizer plant said that 35 to 40 people were unaccounted for.

West, Texas, Mayor Tommy Muska gave that estimate to ABC News as search and rescue teams continued to look for survivors and missing people amid flattened and devastated buildings near the scene of Wednesday evening's explosion.

Volunteer firefighters battling a blaze at the plant that preceded the blast were among the missing.
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State Trooper D.L. Wilson of the Texas Department of Public Safety described the initial fertilizer plant blast as "massive -- just like Iraq, just like the Murray Building in Oklahoma City. The same kind of hydrous [ammonia] exploded, so you can imagine what kind of damage we're looking at."

Swanton said authorities were still in search-and-rescue mode and are not yet in recovery mode.
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However, as they prepared to investigate the explosion site, officials said they were treating it as a crime scene.

"We are not indicating that it is a crime, but we don't know," Swanton said. "What that means to us is that until we know that it is an industrial accident, we will work it as a crime scene. ATF [the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] is conducting the main investigation."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-mayor-35-...31#.UXEDZcqHfPo

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