A special ceremony was held in West, Texas, on Saturday marking the solemn anniversary of the deadly fertilizer plant explosion a decade ago.
The ceremony took place two days before the actual anniversary, on April 17, 2013. City of West and McLennan County officials paid tribute to the 15 lives lost that April night, including 12 first responders and three civilians.
Carolyn Pustejovsky lost her son Joey Pustejovsky, who was 29 at the time of the explosion. Her son was not only a firefighter, but also a West city clerk.
“He would even go to sleep with the pager in his pajamas, so he could get up and go,” Pustejovsky said Saturday. “A very caring and compassionate person.”
The night of the fire, she said she thought her son might have been home. Her house was not far from the fertilizer plant.
“The explosion happened. It blew my car into the air and flipped me over going the wrong way. I had no idea what was happening at the time,” he recalls.
His family took more than a week to confirm that his son was one of those killed in the explosion.
“We were calling all the hospitals to try to find him. I kept thinking, ‘He’s going to be fine,'” she said. “I don’t want anyone to forget what these guys did for the city of West. It could have been so much worse.”
At Saturday’s ceremony, the 15 names were read aloud in his memory. A minute of silence was then observed at the end of the programme.
Las víctimas fallecidas fueron Morris Bridges, Perry Calvin, Jerry Dane Chapman, Cody Frank Dragoo, Kenneth Harris, Adolph Lander, James Matus, Judith Ann Monroe, Joseph “Joey” Pustejovsky, Cyrus Adam Reed, Mariano C. Saldivar, Kevin William Sanders, Douglas Snokhous, Robert Snokhous y William Uptmor, Jr.
The blast also damaged or destroyed homes, buildings, and cars. West Mayor Tommy Muska said rebuilding over the past decade has required money from FEMA and the state of Texas.
“All the infrastructure on the north side of the city, we’ve completely done the streets. New houses are here; 120 new houses,” Mayor Muska said. “Ten years. Many times, one forgets after 10 years. We never want to forget these 15 people.”
In 2016, federal authorities announced that the deadly explosion was caused by a “criminal act.” The findings were revealed in a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation into the source of the deadly fire and explosion.
“I don’t know if any citizen can believe that someone actually started this,” Mayor Muska said Saturday. “I don’t know what the ATF came to find out. They said someone started it. If they did it and killed 15 people and damaged millions of property and the best they can get is a $50,000 reward, then something’s not right. That’s all I can say about it.”
