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Texas blast audio: ‘I need all units to respond’

Radio traffic from West, Texas, shows effort to coordinate large-scale incident response

WEST, Texas — “We need every ambulance you can get this way. A bomb went off inside here; it’s pretty bad. We’ve got a lot of firemen down.”

Those were the words of a volunteer firefighter calling for help after a fertilizer plant fire exploded Wednesday, possibly killing as many as 15 and leaving several firefighters unaccounted for.

“We have many people down, please get me everybody you can,” said a firefighter when a senior living facility was hit by the blast.

“I’m sending you everybody I got,” the dispatcher responded.