How many Aggies does it take to flee a chemical plant?

[Lonestar]

All of them

TX plant fire smolders, 1000 residents displaced
(AP) – 5 hours ago

BRYAN, Texas — About 1,000 people haven't returned to their homes in central Texas after they were evacuated because of a fire at a chemical plant and warehouse that processes explosive ammonium nitrate.

The El Dorado Chemical Co. plant in Bryan was smoldering Friday morning.

John Salsman with Brazos County emergency management says fire officials planned to fly over the area to "see how things are going."

The fire broke out at midday Thursday and authorities issued an evacuation order for thousands in the area about 100 miles north of Houston. Also, Texas A&M University's main campus was closed. According to the school's Web site, it would reopen Friday.

Salsman says most evacuees had returned home, but about 1,000 were still displaced.

Salsman says at least 34 people required medical treatment.

The Texans will get that the title is a "Texas Aggie" joke.

[Darth Wong]

If that ammonium nitrate goes off, we'll have some good new footage for those "destroyed in seconds" or "disaster of the century" videos.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

Lonestar, not being a Texan, I don't get your joke, but if I lived close to that chemical plant I'd get the hell out of dodge untill everyone was sure it wasn't going to explode. It just seems like the smart thing to do.

[tim31]

Try sifting here, you may receive enlightenment.

Nitrate plant explosions are usually pretty good(yeah I know those are real people down there), so I concur with Mike.

[Silver Jedi]

I live two blocks inside of the evacuation zone. Apparently, the big concern wasn't the fire itself, or possible secondary explosions, but the poisonous gasses being released. There was a huge plume of colored smoke that was visible from miles around, but the real danger was from a brown cloud of heavier than air gas that was reportedly engulfing entire business parks as it drifted through the city.

Of course, the big joke around town was comparing the "burden" of the evacuees from the fire to what happened in the aftermath of Katrina and to a lesser extent Rita (when we housed hundreds of refugees in the basketball arena). It was interesting to see the interactions when the predominantly poor, minority locals flooded into restaurants and shops that typically only saw college students