More on West, Texas

Dallas Morning News:

Few details have emerged in public, but Keeney confirmed one point: The warehouse where investigators say the fire started, the one housing the ammonium nitrate, did not have fire sprinklers. It did have fire extinguishers, he said.
A public misconception, widely repeated after the West explosion, is that water should never be applied to an ammonium-nitrate fire. Water is to be avoided in emergencies involving anhydrous ammonia, a gas compressed into a liquid and kept in pressurized tanks.
West Fertilizer had anhydrous ammonia, but investigators say it was not involved in the fire or explosion.
For solid, granular ammonium nitrate, the material that exploded in West, the recommended practice is to inundate it with large amounts of water in case of fire, rapidly reducing the heat to avoid a detonation...
Guidelines for ammonium nitrate handling, found in Chapter 11 of NFPA 400, have evolved over decades, the work of expert committees with volunteer members drawn from first responders, industry chemists and safety engineers.
Chapter 11 spells out detailed standards for ammonium-nitrate storage. Among them is a requirement for sprinklers.
Requirements also include roof ventilation to release heat in case of fire, standards on construction materials for warehouses and storage bins, housekeeping practices to prevent contamination and numerous other measures aimed at preventing or limiting fire.
“Requirements,” however, is a tricky word in fire prevention. Expert groups write fire codes and call their standards “requirements.” However, they’re only mandatory when adopted by state or local governments.
In Texas, nearly all cities and large counties have adopted the International Fire Code, written by the International Code Council, based in Washington. West’s city ordinances do not reflect adoption of an overall fire code. For ammonium-nitrate safety, the International Fire Code defers to the NFPA.
So does the Fertilizer Institute, the Washington-based national trade and lobbying group for makers and distributors of ammonium nitrate both for agriculture and in explosives.
The group has developed detailed guidelines for the material’s security from theft or misuse, but for safety, it sends its members to the NFPA code, vice president Kathy Mathers said.

I would hope that any other fertilizer plants handling ammonium nitrate have learned from this disaster.  I would also expect communities and neighbors to quiz their local facilities as to whether they handle ammonium nitrate, and what safety precautions they take.