Rescue crews were going door to door Thursday in the ruins of a small Texas town where a fertilizer-plant explosion killed at least 5 to 15 people, injured more than 160 and destroyed dozens of home and businesses, including a nursing home.
“I don’t know how many folks may still be trapped in rubble,” said Sgt. William Patrick Swanton. “Homes have been destroyed. There are homes flattened. Part of that community is gone.”
Those still missing included three to five firefighters who were battling a blaze at the plant when it blew up just before 8 p.m. Wednesday, shaking the ground with the force of a magnitude-2.1 earthquake and unleashing a plume of smoke over the farming town of West.
“It just sucked you in and just threw you to the ground,” resident Crystal Jerigan told TODAY, describing how she grabbed her two daughters out of a car and dove through the front door of their house.
There was no indication of criminal activity, although the area was being treated as a crime scene as a precautionary measure, said Swanton, who works for the police department in Waco, about 20 miles away from West.
More from M. Alex Johnson, John Newland and Tracy Connor, NBC News
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