just a giant explosion. are you being evacuated from your home now? they re saying that we need to evacuate. so we are. you have just heard some of the eyewitnesses who experienced the explosion in west, texas. now we want to show you some of the images that were captured soon after the explosion. that is a plume of smoke taken several meters, miles away, we don t know. this is another image. this one so telling of how powerful that explosion was. this is a triage center set up on a football field. one of the triage centers on a football field had to be moved to another football field nearby because they were concerned about the fumes from the plant. nursing homes destroyed, 50 to 70 homes and apartment complexes. these are dramatic pictures. it really makes you wonder what kind of fatality number we will have by the end of this. we don t want to speculate.
close up your windows and doors and put on your air conditioning if you have that to try to filter the air, or whether the recommendation is to leave. one thing you sometimes see in disasters is people having an unwillingness to follow the recommendation to leave an area that s been exposed, but it s so important to do so. the goal is to try and prevent ongoing exposure to the gas, and depending on winds and directions, that could turn in a short moment. people should listen to that and follow those recommendations. thank you so much, dr. besser, for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. wonderful insight and great tips for people who may be near that blast site. let s take a look at these pictures we just got of a mushroom cloud over west texas. take a look. we don t have it. unfortunately, we don t have it at this moment. we ll be right back with that mushroom cloud and much more from west texas with that blast.
air, ammonia compounds still in the air, evacuations nearby. also concern about a second fertilizer tank that could explode, presumably a massive type explosion like we already saw. what can you tell us about these dual concerns right now from where you re at? reporter: that s still a concern the fires are not out. yes, they re under control. yes, they are contained within the plant, the fertilizer factory that blew up, but, yes, there is that tank inside there that still contains some ammonia or some of the product that s being produced there. if they were to catch fire, there could be an explosion. if they were to be ruptured, there could be a leak of toxic fumes out into the community. the wind has been blowing quite strongly from the south for most of the day that may be shifting around this evening. that causes concern for people who live farther to the south including in waco, about 20 miles away. now, jim, the mayor of west texas is a firefighter who said after he was able t
officials have confirmed people are dead. 100-plus injured being treated in waco, texas, as we speak. earlier on the phone, we talked to a woman named linda goelzer, who is from the carter blood bank near waco, texas. she implored people to donate blood because this is what going to be needed in the coming days with the amount of injuries. burn injuries expected, there will be a lot of people hit by debris because of the explosion. the blast was so powerful. take a listen to what she had to say earlier. what we recommend people do. every blood center knows this. best if we can schedule people, and appointments out. these are folks many people are going to be burn patients. they re going to be getting treatment and needing blood products for many, many weeks to come. we want the blood to be coming in on a regular basis as we need it. in our territory we cover 200 health care facilities.