Fertilizer Industry Incidents

Fertilizer facilities store and process large quantities of ammonium nitrate, anhydrous ammonia, and other reactive materials that present catastrophic explosion and toxic-release hazards. The 2013 West Fertilizer explosion, which killed 15 people and destroyed much of a Texas town, is among the most consequential industrial accidents in recent U.S. history — and illustrated the dangers of inadequate hazardous material emergency planning.

2 CSB investigations in this database cover the fertilizer sector, spanning 1998–2024.

Open in Knowledge Graph All Incidents All Industries

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Fertilizer Industry Incidents (2)

Incident	Date	Location	Key Hazards
Allied Terminals Fertilizer Tank Collapse	11/11/2008	Chesapeake, VA	Chemical Release, Structural Failure
West Fertilizer Explosion and Fire	04/17/2013	West, TX	Fire, Explosion

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Frequently Involved Hazard Types

Structural Failure · Chemical Release · Toxic Release · Ammonia Release · Fire · Explosion

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Most Common Chemicals Involved

Ammonia, Toxic Gas, Flammable Liquid, Combustible Dust

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Data sourced from CSB.gov public investigation reports. This site is an independent project not affiliated with the U.S. CSB.