April may be heaven for sports fans, but it has proven to be hell for the fire service, who has responded to mass-casualty events like the Boston Marathon bombing, the Oklahoma.
At 7:51 PM on April 17, 2013, the small town of West, TX, was changed forever when a fire at a fertilizer plant sparked an explosion that claimed 15 lives.
Texas Public Radio
Eight years after the explosion, residents still maintain a fresh wreath of flowers on a white cross, just across the street from the former site of the West Fertilizer Company.
In the City of West a small Texas town, just outside Waco an eternal flame flickers on top of a fountain. It’s surrounded by 15 stone blocks, engraved with the names and life stories of the 15 people killed in a 2013 explosion at West Fertilizer Company, one of the largest and deadliest chemical disasters in recent U.S. history.
Dominic Anthony Walsh
An eternal flame flickers on top of a fountain at West City Park. This is the centerpiece of the memorial to the 15 people killed by the explosion.