Video of the fertilizer plant explosion near Waco, Texas, features terrified girl deafened by a ‘nuclear’ strength blast
A still from the shocking footage captured by an unnamed man of the Waco, Texas fertilizer plant explosion as he sat in a car with his young daughter.
Terrifying video has emerged of the fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas at the moment a massive explosion ripped through it late Wednesday, possibly killing dozens and injuring more than 100.
TV station KWTX news reported that 60 to 70 people had been killed and more than a hundred injured by the explosion in West, 20 miles north of Waco.
The report could not be verified, but KWTX cited West EMS director George Smith as confirming that scores were killed.
The amateur video, picked up by news organizations across the globe overnight, features the cries of a young girl, sitting beside her father in the vehicle as he filmed a fire at the plant that quickly set off the bigger explosion.
Moments after the blast she screams that she can't hear anything and begs her father to get them out of the area.
As black smoke billows across the screen of what is thought to be the man's cell phone, she cries:
"I can’t hear dad, I can’t hear. Get away from here please, get away."
West mayor Tommy Muska said at a news conference hours after the explosion that buildings in a five-block radius from the plant were flattened by the explosion. He added:
"It was like a nuclear bomb went off."
Separately, Jason Shelton, 33, a father of two who lives less than a mile from the plant in West, about 80 miles south of Dallas, told Reuters that he felt the blast as he stood on his front porch.
"My windows started rattling and my kids screaming. The screen door hit me in the forehead … and all the screens blew off my windows."
Here is the video: