Pucker Factor level 9000

Fire reported at fertilizer plant in Athens

ATHENS — Firefighters battled a large fire Thursday evening at an East Texas facility that reportedly stores ammonium nitrate, the same fertilizer that ignited a deadly explosion in the town of West last year.

The fire was reported about 5:45 p.m. at East Texas Ag Supply in downtown Athens, about 70 miles southeast of Dallas.

Police said crews evacuated a five-block radius around the fire, which appeared to have mostly burned itself out more than two hours later.

Police said there had not been an explosion, and no injuries had been reported late Thursday.

The cause of the fire was not yet known.

The building was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived, The Athens Daily Review reported.
“The fire was at such a level when the Athens Fire Department got on the scene, there was nothing to do but to back off,” County Judge Richard Sanders, who serves as Henderson County’s emergency management director, told the Daily Review.

Aerial footage showed that the 60-foot column of flames had reduced the facility to little more than a smoking ruin framed by charred walls.

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