At a news conference in West, 80 miles south of Dallas, Robert Elder, special agent in charge of the Houston division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the agency determined after a lengthy investigation that the fire was intentionally set.
The revelation was a departure from previous investigations by other agencies, which had focused on the plant’s handling of flammable chemicals.
“We came to the conclusion after we ruled out all reasonable accidental and natural causes,” Mr. Elder said. ATF officials said there was no indication it was an act of terrorism.
He said the agency had conducted 400 interviews, which resulted in many leads, but wouldn’t say if there were any suspects. “We are headed in the right direction,” he said.
The explosion on April 17, 2013, at the West Fertilizer Co. leveled a warehouse that stored ammonium nitrate. It left a gaping crater 90 feet wide and 12 feet deep, destroying or severely damaging more than 500 homes in the community of 2,800 located between Dallas and Austin.
ATF Special Agent Nicole Strong said that a specialized fire-research laboratory in Maryland conducted extensive testing to rule out any other causes for the fire, which started in a seed room at the fertilizer facility. She said the testing even included finding the precise make and model of a golf cart that was at the warehouse, to ensure it hadn’t accidentally set off the blaze.The ATF’s findings are part of a forthcoming report on the explosion.
The agency’s announcement sent ripples through West, where of the 15 killed, 12 were firefighters or first responders. More than 250 were left injured.
Even now, the disaster still hangs over the community, where many trace their Czech lineage back generations and the fertilizer plant had long been a town fixture. The notion that a person—perhaps even someone from their community—could be responsible seemed unfathomable to some.
Robert Payne, a volunteer fireman from West who was severely injured in the explosion and lost many friends that night, said he doubted the ATF’s findings.
“I don’t think they can prove that. It is hard to keep a secret in a small town. I have a hard time believing it,” he said. “Most people here believe this was an accident.”
Mr. Payne said he worried the ATF’s conclusion would reopen old wounds and sow suspicion among residents.
Investigations previously focused on how the flammable material at the plant had been handled. A January report by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board found problems with how the material was stored and said sufficient safety precautions hadn’t been followed.
Lawyers for families who are pursuing civil claims against the companies that made the fertilizer components and the warehouse owner released a statement noting that the ATF’s finding examined the cause of the fire but not the subsequent explosion or facts related to the material that exploded.
A lawyer for the Adair family, whose company, Adair Grain Inc. owned the warehouse, said the family wouldn’t issue a statement on the findings until reviewing the full report.
The Adair family isn’t going to rebuild the plant, said John McCoy, the family’s lawyer. The family of farmers doesn’t have any other businesses and has filed legal claims for losses related to the explosion, he said.
In the explosion’s aftermath, President Barack Obama ordered federal agencies to review chemical safety rules, in particular those that govern how ammonium nitrate is stored. Regulators have updated industry guidance on handling the material, and proposed some related rules, including to improve risk-management programs at chemical plants, but none are yet final.
Jeffrey Vaden, a former senior federal prosecutor in Houston, said he wasn’t surprised that the investigation took three years, given the complexity of the incident and the number of people interviewed, and said investigators may have made the announcement to generate any remaining leads well before any statute of limitations expires. The statute for most federal offenses is five years.
Major disasters similar to the West explosion often don’t result in criminal charges, said Mr. Vaden, now a lawyer at Bracewell LLP. “I think that’s largely driven by the fact that many times they are unfortunate accidents, or even if there is some negligence involved, the culpability doesn’t rise to the level of criminal conduct,” he said.
Federal prosecutors have had mixed success in such cases when they have tried to prove criminal negligence. Last month, a federal judge sentenced Massey Energy’s former chief executive to 12 months in prison in connection with a 2010 explosion in a West Virginia mine.
But the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute five men in connection with BP PLC’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were not as successful: Two men were acquitted and a third has his case withdrawn. Two others plead guilty to misdemeanors with no jail time.
West Mayor Tommy Muska said city officials hadn’t been aware of the ATF’s finding until media reports. He said he was surprised by the finding, calling it “a distraction,” and said the town wanted to move forward.
Mr. Muska noted that the city had made considerable strides rebuilding the area around the plant that was ravaged by the explosion, including a nursing home that reopened last year. A high school and junior high school that also were decimated by the disaster are set to reopen in August.
The emotional scars, though, were taking longer to heal, he said.
“It’s something we’re going to have to live with,” Mr. Muska said.
The revelation was a departure from previous investigations by other agencies, which had focused on the plant’s handling of flammable chemicals.
“We came to the conclusion after we ruled out all reasonable accidental and natural causes,” Mr. Elder said. ATF officials said there was no indication it was an act of terrorism.
He said the agency had conducted 400 interviews, which resulted in many leads, but wouldn’t say if there were any suspects. “We are headed in the right direction,” he said.
The explosion on April 17, 2013, at the West Fertilizer Co. leveled a warehouse that stored ammonium nitrate. It left a gaping crater 90 feet wide and 12 feet deep, destroying or severely damaging more than 500 homes in the community of 2,800 located between Dallas and Austin.
ATF Special Agent Nicole Strong said that a specialized fire-research laboratory in Maryland conducted extensive testing to rule out any other causes for the fire, which started in a seed room at the fertilizer facility. She said the testing even included finding the precise make and model of a golf cart that was at the warehouse, to ensure it hadn’t accidentally set off the blaze.The ATF’s findings are part of a forthcoming report on the explosion.
The agency’s announcement sent ripples through West, where of the 15 killed, 12 were firefighters or first responders. More than 250 were left injured.
Even now, the disaster still hangs over the community, where many trace their Czech lineage back generations and the fertilizer plant had long been a town fixture. The notion that a person—perhaps even someone from their community—could be responsible seemed unfathomable to some.
Robert Payne, a volunteer fireman from West who was severely injured in the explosion and lost many friends that night, said he doubted the ATF’s findings.
“I don’t think they can prove that. It is hard to keep a secret in a small town. I have a hard time believing it,” he said. “Most people here believe this was an accident.”
Mr. Payne said he worried the ATF’s conclusion would reopen old wounds and sow suspicion among residents.
Investigations previously focused on how the flammable material at the plant had been handled. A January report by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board found problems with how the material was stored and said sufficient safety precautions hadn’t been followed.
Lawyers for families who are pursuing civil claims against the companies that made the fertilizer components and the warehouse owner released a statement noting that the ATF’s finding examined the cause of the fire but not the subsequent explosion or facts related to the material that exploded.
A lawyer for the Adair family, whose company, Adair Grain Inc. owned the warehouse, said the family wouldn’t issue a statement on the findings until reviewing the full report.
The Adair family isn’t going to rebuild the plant, said John McCoy, the family’s lawyer. The family of farmers doesn’t have any other businesses and has filed legal claims for losses related to the explosion, he said.
In the explosion’s aftermath, President Barack Obama ordered federal agencies to review chemical safety rules, in particular those that govern how ammonium nitrate is stored. Regulators have updated industry guidance on handling the material, and proposed some related rules, including to improve risk-management programs at chemical plants, but none are yet final.
Jeffrey Vaden, a former senior federal prosecutor in Houston, said he wasn’t surprised that the investigation took three years, given the complexity of the incident and the number of people interviewed, and said investigators may have made the announcement to generate any remaining leads well before any statute of limitations expires. The statute for most federal offenses is five years.
Major disasters similar to the West explosion often don’t result in criminal charges, said Mr. Vaden, now a lawyer at Bracewell LLP. “I think that’s largely driven by the fact that many times they are unfortunate accidents, or even if there is some negligence involved, the culpability doesn’t rise to the level of criminal conduct,” he said.
Federal prosecutors have had mixed success in such cases when they have tried to prove criminal negligence. Last month, a federal judge sentenced Massey Energy’s former chief executive to 12 months in prison in connection with a 2010 explosion in a West Virginia mine.
But the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute five men in connection with BP PLC’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were not as successful: Two men were acquitted and a third has his case withdrawn. Two others plead guilty to misdemeanors with no jail time.
West Mayor Tommy Muska said city officials hadn’t been aware of the ATF’s finding until media reports. He said he was surprised by the finding, calling it “a distraction,” and said the town wanted to move forward.
Mr. Muska noted that the city had made considerable strides rebuilding the area around the plant that was ravaged by the explosion, including a nursing home that reopened last year. A high school and junior high school that also were decimated by the disaster are set to reopen in August.
The emotional scars, though, were taking longer to heal, he said.
“It’s something we’re going to have to live with,” Mr. Muska said.
