Page 25 - Casey Steagall News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>>steve: casey, that's one of the reasons, given the winds coming, it's great that they got it under control at 11:00 last night. before you go, because we're going to talk to dr. marc siegel about the medical implications of this ammonia. what was the plant manufacturing? was it anhydrous ammonia or something else? was it ammonium nitrate, that is very volatile when combined. >> we don't know if they're manufacturing this anhydrous ammonia or if it is a chemical being used for other items they may have been making there, if that's something they add to the fertilizer. it's hard to say at this...

Casey is at interstate 35, screen left and casey is by that. >>brian: 19 minutes before the top of the hour. we've got brand-new video. >>gretchen: apparently just into the news room. a triage center has been set up at a football field in west texas. patients with severe burns are being treated there. dr. marc siegel joins us with insight as to what other kinds of injuries are being dealt with at the hospital. let's start with the breathing. what kind of toxins are in the air right now? i'm assuming he's correct that he doesn't need a mask. >> we're talking about anhydrous ammonia. the key her...

A a lot of people initially thought it was an earthquake they had on their hands. then reports started trickling in of this explosion. just to remember, a search-and-rescue mission underway at this hour. more than 160 people have already been treated for injuries ranging from broken bones to inhalation injuries at area hospitals from breathing in the toxic fumes that this was giving off. again, it is still a situation where we have a handful of fire fighters that are still unaccounted for. a devastating catastrophe they're dealing with here in west texas. >>gretchen: casey, let me ask you this...

Figure out what went wrong last night in west, texas. >>gretchen: let's look at the map because this shows you the reverberation as they -- maybe we don't have it. there it is. we have the plant in the center and 500 feet out. you can see that nursing home brian was referring to where an entire wing apparently flattened. a middle school, luckily nobody probably at the school during this time. a high school nearby. 2,500 feet away from the plant is where i-35 is, which is a major thoroughfare that goes north-south from dallas into austin, texas. that's where our own casey stegall has been repor...

>> gretchen: it's interesting because originally during the first press conference early this morning, or one of the first ones, somewhere in the 5:00 a.m east coast hour, the sheriff in charge, i believe of waco, said they were considering this a criminal act. they say that's standard operating procedure, that they always want to look at the crime scene in case it ends up there was foul play. not that they're indicating it was. i find it interesting, i'm wondering if the chemicals being produced at this plant are highly flammable on their own and if not, could there be some other explanation ...