West, Texas

West is the little town about an hour and a half north of where I live where the fertilizer factory explosion happened last week. At least 14 people were killed and over 160 injured. A school, a nursing home, and an apartment complex plus a number of houses were hit by the blast and mostly destroyed. The middle school and the high school were also damaged and may have to be knocked down.

It's a small town that was settled in the late 1800s by Czech and German immigrants. Here, it's mostly famous for Czech pastries, and Lillian13 talks about that here.

The Houston Chronicle has this report on some of the firefighters and first responders who were killed here.

The West disaster relief fund is taking donations here.