How ridiculous and negligent is this?

Forget how the fire started for a minute. Just realize there was a fire where this chemical was stored.

Now.

Why wasn't everyone, including fire personnel, evacuated?

Anhydrous ammonia boils at a temperature of – 28 degrees Fahrenheit (-33 degrees Celsius). To keep it liquid at temperatures above this, it must be stored and injected into the soil under pressure. (Once in the soil, the liquid ammonia turns to gas, releasing its nitrogen into the soil as it absorbs the soil's moisture.) Containers used to store anhydrous ammonia should conform to the guidelines of the American National Standards Unit, with all parts and surfaces able to withstand a pressure of at least 250 pounds per square inch (1724 kilo-pascals).

The ANSU has been setting standards for careful handling of industrial chemicals a long time.

Why do I believe this was never adhered to? First the employer has to value human life before profits and then the company has to believe they have a responsibility to those human beings rather than profits. When companies don't value human life, that is the place of the government to say, if you are employing our citizens they have to be safe. To insure that they are safe, these are the regulations and inspection schedule you can expect on a regular basis.

Storage Tanks (click here)

Storage tanks inside buildings must be:

1. located in a well-ventilated area; and
2. protected by automatic sprinklers....

Texas should value their citizens enough to carry out regulation and inspections without having to wait for OSHA. As a rule OSHA responds to complaints first and then routine inspections. Why? Because under the Bush Administration they didn't give a darn they ever inspected any complaint. As a matter of fact, the Bush Administration made it nearly impossible to file a complaint. So, I can only imagine what the backlog looked like when the Obama Administration took over the federal office and then to have funding cuts makes it even worse.

This is from Tanner Industries. (click here) The company takes care of their responsibilities according to STANDARDS.

This is Tanner's mission statement:

“Our mission is to constantly improve our products and service to meet and exceed our customers' needs, to distribute our products in a safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible manner, and to generate a reasonable return in order to provide continuity for the business and employment for our employees.”

Anhydrous Ammonia: (MSDS) Material Safety Data Sheet (click here)