They hope to determine by May 10 what caused the explosion, Texas Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said at a state legislative hearing on Wednesday.Ī spokesman for the U.S. About 80 investigators from various state and federal agencies are contributing to the probe.

Authorities have not said whether either tip was credible. Investigators are pursuing about 100 leads, including a call to an arson hotline and a tip that there had been a fire on the property earlier on the day of the explosion, according to Moreno. Anhydrous ammonia has been ruled out as a cause because the four storage tanks remained intact after the blast, said Rachel Moreno, a spokeswoman for the Texas Fire Marshal’s Office. There also is no indication that the explosion had anything to do with the theft of materials for drug making. The cause of the April 17 blast at the plant in the town of West is still being probed, and investigators have offered no evidence that security breaches contributed to the deadly incident. In rural areas across the United States, the thriving meth trade has turned storage facilities like West Fertilizer Co and even unattended tanks in farm fields into frequent targets of theft, according to several government and fertilizer industry reports issued over the past 13 years. The liquid gas can be used to cook methamphetamine, the addictive and illicit stimulant. Some of the leaks, including one reported in October 2012, were linked to theft or interference with tank valves.Īccording to one 2002 crime report, a plant manager told police that intruders were stealing four to five gallons of anhydrous ammonia every three days. Police responded to at least 11 reports of burglaries and five separate ammonia leaks at West Fertilizer Co over the past 12 years, according to 911 dispatch logs and criminal offense reports Reuters obtained from the McLennan County Sheriff’s office in Waco, Texas through an Open Records Request. The remains of a fertilizer plant burn after an explosion at the plant in the town of West, near Waco, Texas, in this file picture taken early April 18, 2013.

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