I don’t think we’re gotten near the end of the explosion in West, Texas.  This explosion was not an act of God and we’d be damfools not to keep our eye on it to insure it never happens again.

If you own a home a Texas, you’re apt to have an insurance policy on that home with a one million dollar liability limit if someone gets hurt on your property.  That, my friends, is the same amount of insurance that the West Fertilizer Company had.

“If you want to drive a truck down the interstate, you’ve got to have $750,000 in coverage, even if you’re just carrying eggs,” Roberts said. “But if you want to put this ammonium nitrate into this town next to that school and that nursing home and those houses, you’re not required to carry insurance.”

The property damage alone in West could reach $100 million.  That’s not counting the death and injury bills.

In my mind, what happened in West and what happened in Bangladesh are different only in the the number of people killed.  The owners of that plant knew – or should have known – full well that those volunteer firefighters were walking into a death trap.

The owner of the business in Bangladesh was arrested.  The ones here are called job creators and given tax breaks.

The Dallas Morning News has a map of where the fertilizer plants are in Texas.  See if there’s one near you.

Thanks to Ken for the heads up.