That was too close, much closer and there would have been serious injuries
prayers for victims and families
Grump the place is probably less populated than a medium density urban neighborhood, the town was ~2600 people so reports of homes destroyed / damaged beyond plant fence no surprise.
Fertilizer plant. Most likely ammonium nitrate considering the blast. That is a high order explosive under certain conditions, like fire, or fire with water. You can't "smother" a nitrate fire. It is an oxidizer.
I worked in a local fertilizer plant in my youth. The payloaders and fork lifts leaked hydraulic oil every where from rust eating thru hydraulic line fittings. Not a good thing when you are oiling down ammonium nitrate.
The plant got closed down and is currently a superfund site. It did blow up once, but it was from a dust explosion from "Chicago Sludge" (dried sewage solids powder) and did little more than blow off a part of the roof.
Even scarier are phosphate plants where they mix the ammonia and nitric acid to make the nitrate.
