What is so tragic about the fertilizer factory is that 11 of the 12 dead were volunteer first-responders. The plant caught fire, they went to put it out, and then it blew up and killed them. So awful.

Even I have limits on how much buttercream I can eat.

West, TX fire

1/3 of the town's volunteer fire department are among the dead.

Jesus, msbelle, that's terrible.

Oh god, that's so awful.

What is so tragic about the fertilizer factory is that 11 of the 12 dead were volunteer first-responders. The plant caught fire, they went to put it out, and then it blew up and killed them. So awful.

Wow, I didn't know that. That's horrible.

1/3 of the town's volunteer fire department are among the dead.

Ugh.

Training house-burning is a lot of fun. A friend was with the volunteer fire department, which is a big thing in NC. I don't know about the rest of the country. City departments didn't respond beyond the city limits, so groups of people would volunteer, raise funds, buy trucks and equipment, do proper research and training with pro units, and set up volunteer stations within communities.

Anyway, they had a house donated, with no time limit for clearing the site, so they lit it up and practiced going through rooms looking for kids hiding, pets, putting out specific kinds of fires in various locations (attic, kitchen, upholstered furniture, insulation, electrical wiring), and putting it out without terminal damage so they could light it up and use it again: ladder access to second floor windows, chopping holes in the roof to guide a burn, all kinds of stuff.

We were invited to the house's final burn and funeral pyre. In spite of the very professional way the squad progressed through the evening, there was a "Yay! Burn!" atmosphere on site that night.

Nobody thought to bring hot dogs and marshmallows, though.

ET apologize for the awkward crosspost about volunteer responders.

I was just reading about the SS Grandcamp explosion, and that killed all but one of the volunteer firefighters.

Bless people who do that for a living, and bless those who volunteer.

In massively trite news, I was back on the Harvard site looking at tests, and this one is supposed to predict your age: [link] I'm going to take that as a compliment.

Today is just from bizarroland. Good chance I won't be able to swim due to storms. We're now under a tornado watch.

I saw a Texas editorial that blamed the disaster, in part, on lax LOCAL zoning. Like not letting an explosive fertilizer plant be situated near homes and schools, common sense stuff.

(Depending on a volunteer FD to handle an industrial fire is ASKING for a disaster. )

The first comment on the piece accused the writer of being a liberal in love with big government and, I swear "the Obamassiah."

Note once again: the writer was calling for local zoning.