Two days after the fertilizer facility exploded in a blinding fireball, authorities announced that they had recovered 14 bodies, confirming for the first time an exact number of people killed. Grieving families quickly started planning burials.
At least three of those who perished in Wednesday's blast were firefighters, according to family members. The dead included Uptmor and Joey Pustejovsky, the city secretary who doubled as a member of the West Volunteer Fire Department, as well as a captain of the Dallas Fire Department who was off-duty at the time but responded to the fire to help.
The explosion was strong enough to register as a small earthquake and could be heard for many miles across the Texas prairie. It demolished nearly everything for several blocks around the plant. More than 200 people were hurt.
Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jason Reyes said he could not confirm how many first-responders had been killed. Efforts to search devastated buildings in a four-block radius around the blast site continued Friday.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn told television station WFAA that search-and-rescue workers had a list of several dozen people who are unaccounted for and were checking that list against those people who are still hospitalized, staying with relatives or evacuated because their homes were destroyed.
"So, hopefully that number will come way down, hopefully to zero," Cornyn said.
Friday 19 April 2013
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/crews-seek-survivors-bodies-texas-blast-18994785#.UXG_wadzA34
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