If the astounding explosion in West caught most Texans off-guard, it might be because they weren't aware that a chemical facility holding tremendous amounts of a deadly explosive fuel could operate within the confines of a town, incredibly close to homes and schools.
The UK's Guardian newspaper did some digging and came up with the annotated map above, listing the sites of other reported fertilizer operations across Texas and the United States. It lists four other plants or storage facilities in Texas, in addition to the now-exploded building belonging to West Fertilizer Co., which may have held as much as 27 tons of anhydrous ammonia.
Two are in the Panhandle communities of Plainview and Borger, and two more are on the Gulf Coast, in southeast Houston and Freeport.
