The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Philippine officials in the United States are checking if there were Filipino victims in a fertilizer facility explosion which reportedly killed around 60 to 70 people and injured over a hundred others early on Thursday.
“The PHL Embassy in Washington and Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles are monitoring the massive explosion near Waco, Texas,” DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez told GMA News Online via text on Thursday.
Initial media reports indicated some 60 to 70 people may have been killed and hundreds injured in the blast.
Reuters news agency on Thursday reported that a fiery explosion ripped through a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, on Wednesday night, damaging or destroying numerous buildings including a school and nursing home.
The blast, apparently preceded by a fire at the plant, happened in West, a town of some 2,700 people about 130 kilometers (km) south of Dallas and 32 km north of Waco.
Mayor Tommy Muska said in an interview on CNN that 60 to 80 homes around the plant were flattened.
A Texas public safety dispatcher in Waco told Reuters that an initial explosion was followed by two smaller blasts, all of which erupted after a fire at the plant.
He said there was concern that a "second silo" at the plant could explode and that authorities were scrambling to evacuate the area around the facility.
The air in town remained thick with smoke more than two hours after the explosion, and the area around the blast site was littered with shards of wood, bricks and glass.
Filipino community
Hernandez added that the consulate is now trying to get in touch with the Filipino Community leaders to determine if there were Filipinos affected by the explosion.
He mentioned that the Filipino population is concentrated in central Dallas and southern Houston with 160,000 Filipinos residing in Texas.
The explosion in Texas occurred less than a week after two deadly blasts marred the Boston Marathon.
There were no Filipino casualties in the Boston Marathon bombing, according to a tweet from the official Twitter account of the Philippine Embassy in Washington.
“PH Consulate General in New York says definitely no Filipinos among casualties in Boston Marathon terror attack,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles has jurisdiction over:
"A lot of devastation"
In the Reuters report, McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said, "It's a lot of devastation. I've never seen anything like this," adding that "it looks like a war zone with all the debris."
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, D.L. Wilson, told Reuters the blast had probably caused "hundreds of casualties" and damaged many homes but had no word on fatalities. He added that a nearby nursing home had collapsed from the explosion and that people were believed trapped inside.
McNamara said the nursing home and much of the center of town had been evacuated, and that residences near the explosion had been leveled.
There was no immediate official word on what sparked the explosion as emergency personnel assisted victims and doused the flames. U.S. Representative Bill Flores, whose district includes West, said he doubted any foul play was involved.
The explosion came two days before the 20th anniversary of a fire in Waco that engulfed a compound inhabited by David Koresh and his followers in the Branch Davidian sect, ending a siege by federal agents.
Some 82 members of the sect and four federal agents died at Waco. - with Michaela del Callar, VVP, GMA News
“The PHL Embassy in Washington and Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles are monitoring the massive explosion near Waco, Texas,” DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez told GMA News Online via text on Thursday.
Initial media reports indicated some 60 to 70 people may have been killed and hundreds injured in the blast.
Reuters news agency on Thursday reported that a fiery explosion ripped through a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, on Wednesday night, damaging or destroying numerous buildings including a school and nursing home.
The blast, apparently preceded by a fire at the plant, happened in West, a town of some 2,700 people about 130 kilometers (km) south of Dallas and 32 km north of Waco.
Mayor Tommy Muska said in an interview on CNN that 60 to 80 homes around the plant were flattened.
A Texas public safety dispatcher in Waco told Reuters that an initial explosion was followed by two smaller blasts, all of which erupted after a fire at the plant.
He said there was concern that a "second silo" at the plant could explode and that authorities were scrambling to evacuate the area around the facility.
The air in town remained thick with smoke more than two hours after the explosion, and the area around the blast site was littered with shards of wood, bricks and glass.
Filipino community
Hernandez added that the consulate is now trying to get in touch with the Filipino Community leaders to determine if there were Filipinos affected by the explosion.
He mentioned that the Filipino population is concentrated in central Dallas and southern Houston with 160,000 Filipinos residing in Texas.
The explosion in Texas occurred less than a week after two deadly blasts marred the Boston Marathon.
There were no Filipino casualties in the Boston Marathon bombing, according to a tweet from the official Twitter account of the Philippine Embassy in Washington.
“PH Consulate General in New York says definitely no Filipinos among casualties in Boston Marathon terror attack,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles has jurisdiction over:
- Southern California covering the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Kern, and San Luis Obispo
- Southern Nevada covering the counties of Clark, Lincoln and Nye
- State of Arizona
- State of New Mexico
- State of Texas
"A lot of devastation"
In the Reuters report, McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said, "It's a lot of devastation. I've never seen anything like this," adding that "it looks like a war zone with all the debris."
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, D.L. Wilson, told Reuters the blast had probably caused "hundreds of casualties" and damaged many homes but had no word on fatalities. He added that a nearby nursing home had collapsed from the explosion and that people were believed trapped inside.
McNamara said the nursing home and much of the center of town had been evacuated, and that residences near the explosion had been leveled.
There was no immediate official word on what sparked the explosion as emergency personnel assisted victims and doused the flames. U.S. Representative Bill Flores, whose district includes West, said he doubted any foul play was involved.
The explosion came two days before the 20th anniversary of a fire in Waco that engulfed a compound inhabited by David Koresh and his followers in the Branch Davidian sect, ending a siege by federal agents.
Some 82 members of the sect and four federal agents died at Waco. - with Michaela del Callar, VVP, GMA News
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